A wafer cone of soft ice cream with a stick of flaky chocolate inserted into it. Image: unknown The origin of the name is uncertain, but almost certainly dates from the 1930’s when Cadbury began providing short-length flake chocolates specifically for ice creams, and Askeys, the cone-makers, started providing a ‘dripless’ cup cone, both, seemingly independently using the ’99’ branding. However, the earliest ice-cream treats sold as ’99’ were wafer sandwiches with a stick of chocolate in the centre (OED). Possible reasons suggested for the name include: ●Ice cream is ‘IC’ which is one way of writing 99 in Roman numerals. ●Italy had, or a king had, or the Pope has, a group of 99 elite soldiers, so anything first-rate was dubbed a ’99’ by Italians, including those in the English ice-cream trade. ●The flakes are 99mm long ●A chocolate flake has 99 layers. ●They were invented by Edinburgh ice cream maker Rudi Arcari in the 1920s at his shop, 99 Portobello High St. ●They originally cost 6/6 per box of 99 items 99 Ice Cream Image: ‘distillated’ |
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