Why is ice cream in a cone, with a chocolate flake stuck in it called a 99?
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.
