A 99 Flake, 99 or ninety-nine is an
ice cream cone
An ice cream cone, poke (Ireland/Scotland) or cornet (England) is a brittle, cone-shaped pastry, usually made of a wafer similar in texture to a waffle, made so ice cream can be carried and eaten without a bowl or spoon, for example, the Hong Kon ...
with a
Cadbury Flake
Flake is a British brand of chocolate bar currently manufactured by British chocolate company Cadbury consisting of thinly folded milk chocolate. The bar has a unique crumbly texture, and softens but does not melt when heated.
History
The orig ...
inserted in it. The term can also refer to the half-sized
Cadbury-produced Flake bar, itself specially made for such ice cream cones, and to a wrapped ice cream cone product marketed by Cadbury.
Created at the Cadbury's factory in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, England, the flake was originally designed to be a
cuboid and to fit into a
wafer
A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They ...
.
By 1930, Cadbury's was selling half-length Flake "99s" specifically for serving in an ice cream cone.
[
]
'99' ice cream
A 99 Flake is an ice cream cone, usually made with soft serve
Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dessert, similar to ice cream but softer and less dense due to air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve has been sold commercially since the late 1930s in the US.
In the US, soft serve is ...
ice cream, into which a Flake bar has been inserted. The ice cream is usually vanilla flavour
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla ('' V. planifolia'').
Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from which t ...
ed. They are sold by ice cream van
An ice cream van (British) or ice cream truck (North American) is a commercial vehicle that serves as a mobile retail outlet for ice cream, usually during the spring and summer. Ice cream vans are often seen parked at public events, or near ...
s and parlours. Variations include a 99 with two flakes – often referred to as a "double 99" or "bunny's ears" – and a 99 with strawberry or raspberry syrup
In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...
on top, sometimes known as "monkey's blood".
Cadbury 99 Flake bar
The Flake chocolate bar manufactured and marketed by Cadbury was first developed in the UK in 1920. An employee of Cadbury's noted that when the excess chocolate from the moulds used to create other chocolate bars was drained off, it fell off in a stream and created folded chocolate with flaking properties.
The early "99 Flake" was a wafer "sandwich", not a flake bar inserted into a cone of ice cream. It consisted of a small chocolate flake inserted between two servings of ice cream and placed between two wafer biscuits.
In 1930, Cadbury started producing a smaller version of the standard Flake bar especially for use with ice cream cones.[ These were marketed under the name 99 Flake and sold loose in boxes rather than individually wrapped like the traditional Flake.
]
Name
The origins of the name are uncertain. One claim is that it was coined in Portobello
Portobello, Porto Bello, Porto Belo, Portabello, or Portabella may refer to:
Places Brazil
* Porto Belo
Ireland
* Portobello, Dublin
* Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin formerly ''Portobello Barracks''
New Zealand
* Portobello, New Zealand, on Ot ...
, Scotland, where Stefano Arcari who had opened a shop in 1922 at 99 Portobello High Streetwould break a large "Flake" in half and stick it in an ice cream. The name derived from the shop's address. A Cadbury representative took the naming idea to his company.[ Another address-based claim for the "99" is made by the Dunkerleys in ]Gorton
Gorton is an area of Manchester in North West England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw.
A major landmark is Gorton Monastery, a 19th-century Hig ...
, Manchester, who operated a sweet shop at 99 Wellington Street.
Another naming possibility[ is that it was named by immigrant Italian ice-cream sellers, many of whom were from the mountainous areas in ]Veneto
it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman)
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, especially in the Bellunes Alps, Trentino
Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...
, and Friuli
Friuli ( fur, Friûl, sl, Furlanija, german: Friaul) is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity containing 1,000,000 Friulians. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli Venezia Giuli ...
. The name was in honour of the final wave of Italian First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
conscripts, born in 1899 and referred to as "i Ragazzi del 99" ("the Boys of '99"). In Italy they were held in such high esteem that some streets were named in their honour. The chocolate flake may have reminded the ice cream sellers of the long dark feather cocked at an angle in the conscripts' '' Alpini'' Regiment hats.
The Cadbury website says that the reason behind the Flake being called a "99" has been "lost in the mists of time". However, the website also references an article from an old Cadbury works paper, which states that the name came from the guard of the Italian king, which consisted of 99 men and thus "anything really special or first class was known as 99."Cadbury FAQ on names of products
, Cadbury
References
External links
BBC News story about origin of the name
Ice cream brands
British cuisine
Cadbury brands
Chocolate desserts
Mondelez International brands
Cuboids
fi:99 Flake
{{Ice cream