As summer is officially here, many will be cooling down by enjoying a sweet ice cream, and one shopper now claims to have found the “cheapest” one in an unlikely place
As most parts of the UK have recently been through a record-breaking heatwave which saw record temperatures of up to 37.1C in certain areas, it’s no surprise that many will have been enjoying an ice cream or two to help cool themselves down.
Whether you’re an ice lolly devotee or prefer to dig straight into the tub, there’s no shortage of refreshing goodies to help you keep cool. However, many will have noticed that ice cream, like most other goods, has increased in price, as it can be difficult to find a 99 that actually costs 99p in modern times – albeit not impossible.
But now, one user claims to have found “the cheapest” ice cream in all of Britain, and it’s not from a supermarket or an ice cream van, but at a store you might not have expected.
Taking to Facebook, the account “Very British Problems” went on to share their bargain find for their 1.3 million followers to see.
“It’s sunny so I’ve come for surely the cheapest 99 in Britain. Such a cheap 99 that it’s a 95!” they wrote on the post, which included a photo of the advertised ice cream in question, confirming that the price was just 95p from Swedish furniture store Ikea.
“I’ll probably not feel the benefit of the savings once I’ve spent £400 on cupboards,” they added in the comment section.
Ikea’s soft serve ice cream is described on their website as a “traditional soft ice based on milk and cream” with a classic vanilla flavour.
However, people were quick to point out one alleged “mistake” with the Facebook post, which was that it couldn’t actually be called a 99 because it didn’t come with the classic Cadbury Flake.
“Not a 99 without a flake though!” one person wrote. Another user explained: “Without a Flake it’s just a Mr Whippy. You need that stick of crumbly chocolate goodness to make it a “99”.
Someone else said: “It’s 95p because there’s no Flake. The Flake would take it up to the average UK price of £6.50.”
What is a 99 ice cream?
In British culture, a 99 is a popular ice cream cone (usually vanilla soft-serve) that contains a Cadbury Flake bar that’s been inserted into the ice cream.
Created at the Cadbury’s factory in Birmingham, England, the Flake was originally designed to be a cuboid and to fit into a wafer. By 1930, Cadbury’s was selling half-length Flake “99s” specifically for serving in 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 early “99 Flake” took the form of an ice cream sandwich. It consisted of a Flake bar inserted between two servings of ice cream, then placed between two wafer biscuits.
However, the origin of the “99” ice cream remains a mystery. Some believe the name traces back to 1922, when a man called Stefano Arcari opened up an ice cream shop in Scotland at 99 Portobello High Street.
He would apparently break a Flake in half and then place it in the ice cream to serve to his customers, taking inspiration from the shop’s address for the ice cream’s name.
But others speculate that the “99” Flake was so-called to honour the i Ragazzi del 99, “the Boys of ‘99”. They were a group of soldiers born in 1899 and so the last to enlist in the First World War.
Some also believe it was called a 99 because it used to cost 99p, which may have been true in the 90s or early 2000s, but was far from the truth when they first originated in the early 1900s.
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