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Ice Cream Fun and Facts

The Flake chocolate bar itself was first developed in 1920. An employee of Cadburys noted that when the excess 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. In 1930, Cadbury started producing a smaller version of the standard Flake bar especially for ice cream cones.These were marketed under the name 99 Flake and sold loose in boxes rather than individually wrapped like the traditional Flake.

The 99

The origins of the name are uncertain. One claim is that the '99' was coined in Portobello  Scotland, in 1922, by the Arcari family, Rudi Arcari's father Stephen came up with the idea not long after opening the shop in 1922. He would break a large 'Flake" in half and stick it in an ice cream. A Cadbury's rep took this idea to his company. The rep asked Arcari what he called it, and he gave it the name 99 simply because the shop was sited at 99 Portobello High Street. The idea spread locally, then further afield. Another possibility, generally discounted is that it was named by Italian ice-cream sellers (many of whom hailed from mountainous areas in the Veneto, Trentino, Bellunese and Friuli) in honour of the final wave of conscripts from the First World War, born in 1899 and referred to as "i Ragazzi del 99" - the Boys of '99. They were held in such high esteem that some streets in Italy were named in honour of them. The chocolate flake may have reminded them of the Alpine Regiment's hat, with a long dark feather cocked at an angle.

 

The Cadbury's website says that the reason behind the Flake being called a 99 has been "lost in the mists of time" although it also repeats an article from an old Cadbury works paper, which states the name came from the guard of the Italian king which consisted of 99 men and "subsequently anything really special or first class was known as 99

 

The biggest ice-cream sundae ever made was 12 feet high! It took 4,667 gallons of ice cream and 7,000 pounds of toppings!

 

The most popular flavour by far is Vanilla, followed by Chocolate, Strawberry and Neapolitan

 

Many say that the first ice-cream is credited to Emperor Nero of Rome. It was a mixture of snow, nectar, fruit pulp, and honey

 

Britain is Europe’s third biggest consumer of ice-cream at around 8 litres per person

 

This amount of indulging is dwarfed by the American average of 21 litres!

 

The ice-cream cone is one of the most environmentally friendly forms of packaging

 

More ice-cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week

 

The average number of licks to polish off a single scoop ice-cream cone is approximately 50