Ice-cream >>>>>>>>?

Question

Can anyone tell me why an ice-cream cone with a chocolate flake in it is called a 99 what is the meaning of 99, in this context?

Think about it its been called 99 for years,,,, long before it would of cost 99p

Answer 1

all previous answers are wrong, apparently

Check out the following link, published on the bbc website the other day.

Answer 2

The reason I like best is that in the 1930's most ice cream salesmen were Italians. In Italy 99 is regarded as a very lucky number after the number of guards one of their kings had. Not only lucky but the cream of the bunch. The cone that the ice cream first appeared in had 99 on the side indicating 'the best' and the number continued when the Cadbury flake was inserted..

Answer 3

Why are 99s called that


The taste of summer is surely the 99 - soft ice cream in a cone with a Flake. Many and various are the theories as to how it got this name.
In the UK a soft - never scooped - ice cream with a flaky stick of chocolate at a jaunty angle is known as a 99. But the newcomer to these shores who wonders at the name's provenance is sure to be baffled.

EARLY MENTIONS

1935 Cadbury's price list: '99 CDM Flake (For Ice Cream Trade) 1 gro[ss] singles 6/6. One price only'
1936 advert: 'Try a 99 ice cream with Cadbury's Dairy Milk Flake chocolate'
1951 advert: 'Say 99 - Janette Scott, child film star, like millions of other children and grown-ups, knows that the best way to eat ice cream is in Askeys 99 Cake Cones'
Earlier this week, a Magazine reader from London wrote in to ask this very question, prompting a flurry of responses - all positing different theories. So which is right?

The ice cream in question has gone by that name since 1930, when Cadbury's launched a shorter version of its Flake bar - called a Flake 99 - for the ice cream trade.

Which does rather seem to blow one theory - that the bar is exactly 99mm long - out of the water. The UK is only now edging towards metrification - 70-odd years ago, everything was in imperial measures.

Ditto the suggestion that back in the day they cost 99p. True in the 1990s, but in 1930, nothing cost 99p - it was pre-decimalisation, remember.

Another theory goes that the initials of ice cream are IC, which is one way to write 99 in Roman numerals. But the convention is to write it XCIX - but it's possible this was ignored or not known.

Word hunt

What says the Oxford English Dictionary?


"Ninety-nine n. (also 99) Brit. an ice cream cone made with soft ice cream with a stick of flaky chocolate inserted into it (as 99 a proprietary name in the United Kingdom); (formerly) an ice cream wafer sandwich containing a similar stick of chocolate; a wafer cone or chocolate stick for an ice cream (disused)."
The dictionary can shed no light on its origins: "The reason for the name is unknown... the application to the chocolate may not precede its application to the ice cream. The suggestion that something really special or first class was known as '99' in allusion to an elite guard of 99 soldiers in the service of the King of Italy appears to be without foundation."


A 99 without a Flake, Gordon?
This was a theory put forward by a Cadbury's sales manager who worked with Italian soft ice cream makers in County Durham in 1928, who noticed they were cutting regular Flakes in half to add to ice creams.

But BBC Two's Balderdash and Piffle - which aimed to find out more about words listed in the OED as "origins unknown" - found that the myth actually referred to the Vatican's Swiss Guard, which traditionally had 105 members and now has 100.

One theory the programme-makers discussed was that the name may have come originally from the cone - a company called Askeys (see factbox above) made a cone stamped "99", much as pasta shapes are graded by number. But they concluded that it may have been dreamt up by Cadbury as a marketing slogan.

After the series aired in January, Edinburgh ice cream maker Rudi Arcari claimed her grandfather Stephen invented the treat in the 1920s and named it after the address of the family's shop at 99 Portobello High St.

"My dad always said that my granddad broke a Flake in half - before the short 99 Flakes were manufactured - and stuck it in an ice cream. We're not sure of the exact date he did that, but it was not long after he opened the shop in 1922."

The OED has invited her to provide more information, but in the meantime, its entry for the 99 remains "origin unknown".

Answer 4

To be honest, they actually know the answer to this question. On BBC TV last year there was a show called Balderdash that tried to answer this very same question. It first appeared on ice cream vans in the 1950's. It definitely is not to do with the price. An ice cream costs 99p now, can you imagine it costing that in the 1950's when the average wage was less than £20 a week???

Answer 5

the cone is the bit there call the 99 not the flake or the ice cream hope that helps.

Answer 6

it used to mean the price now everyone calls them 99's even though it cost me 1 pound 65p to buy a ice cream with a flake today

Answer 7

Not the 99 question again.
It was 99th number on a list.

Answer 8

it USED to cost 99p

now however, the cheeky, money-grabbing ice cream vendors charge £1.20 for a 99! its really quite stupid and crazy!

Answer 9

It means the price..

99p

Answer 10

99 people r competing 2 get it....