Why Are Ice-cream Cones With Flakes Stuck In Them Called 99s?

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Nick Allen , Saltaire, UK

• I seem to remember the flakes that were put in the ice-creams were originally called 99s.

  Sandy, Paussac, France

• Apparently it is so called because the majority of ice cream merchants in the fifties were Italian. The King of Italy had an elite bodyguard consisting of 99 men. So anything elite was called 99s by Italians. So they called the elite ice cream a 99.

  Ray Mitcham, Southport, UK

• From the Cadbury website: An Ice Cream served in a cone with a Flake 99 is the UK's favourite ice cream. In the days of the monarchy in Italy the King had an elite guard consisting of 99 soldiers. Subsequently anything really special or first class was known as "99". When Cadbury launched its small Flake for ice creams in 1930, the UK ice cream industry was dominated by ex-pat Italians. So, to appeal to Italians we called our superb Flake a "99".

  Sue Fuller, Brentwood, England

• Because in the good old days, they used to be 99p.

  Philippa, Ferris, England

• So that Wikipedia could run a business. CHECK THE WEB FIRST! 99 Hail Marys.

  John Rymell, Stepney, UK

• Because in roman numerals 99 is IC - Ice Cream Maybe not true but I like it.

  Trevor Ball, Bolton, UK

• 99s are so called because the smaller than normal flake should be 99millimetres long.

  Drew, Dover, England

• I like the answer of the famous Italian ice cream shop in Portobello Scotland in the early thirties. The flake was made to go with his ice creams and were called 99's because that was the number of his shop.

  Tony, Basingstoke, UK

• I was always told it was because the ice cream came out of the machine in a swirl and the swirl started in the centre of the cone and was formed with a twist in the shape of 9. the original cones also came in twos and the formation was therefore 99.

  Jeremy Harris, Hong Kong Hong Kong

• A lot of young folk seem to think it's because they used to cost 99p - just had this discussion in my house. In the 'olden days' we had pounds, shillings and pence up until the early 70s! There wasn't any such thing as 99p - it would have been 19/11 (nineteen and eleven) and NO-ONE would have pain THAT for an ice-cream! lol They were probably about 9d (old pence)when I was little. So I go with the king's guards theory - sounds lovely!

  Jan, Liverpool UK

• Not another answer for 99 but in the 1950s we used to have family holidays in St Mildred's Bay, Westgate-on-Sea. There were two ice cream kiosks on the sea-front, one kiosk marketed the cornet with a flake a 99, the competition called it a 6-5 Special after the popular Saturday evening BBC pop music TV programme.

  David Court, Petts Wood, UK