Ice-cream vendors complain flakes now 'too crumbly' for the much loved Mr Whippy 99 cones

We’ve got 99 problems but now the issue of the flakiness of the melt-in-your mouth chocolate bar is number one for British ice-cream vendors (First World problem alert).

But apparently the flake chocolate bar we all love so much because of the melty sugar rush it delivers to the palate is now too flaky to sit atop the much loved ‘Cadbury 99 flake’ so popular across the UK from ice-cream vans and other outlets.

This does sound like a bizarre subject to even adress, especially in the midst of say, a major cost-of-living crisis and innumerable other more pressing global problems, but according to the BBC and the Guardian, since production of the chocolate bar has been outsourced to Egypt it is now simply far too flaky to stick in the delicious whippy ice-cream loved across the nation in cone form without just falling apart.

Reports say some ice-cream sellers are now opting for a less pliant German version.

As the beginning of warmer weather gives way to the hopefully very sunny days of summer 2023, and queues start to form outside ever-popular Whippy vans, vendors are complaining of a new fragility that is undermining the solid integrity of flakes – with the treat now too easily crumbling into shards.

“You can’t give someone a 99 with a broken flake,” John Taylor, the owner of C&M Creamery Ices, told the BBC. “It’s embarrassing for an ice-cream man.”

Flake ice-cream toppers are reportedly half the size of the chocolate bars sold in newsagents and supermarkets, with the mini versions used by the hospitality trade now manufactured outside the Egyptian capital of Cairo.

The British love affair with the 99 cone and, therefore, the strength of views on flake quality is apparently “not to be underestimated” since in 2021, when lockdown ended, the clamour to enjoy a Mr Whippy led to a ‘flake shortage’.

Cadbury has been owned by the US multinational Mondelēz since 2010.

The company, which has been making flake 99 in Egypt since 2020, insisted the recipe had not changed and it took issues about quality “very seriously”.

“Cadbury flake 99 is a naturally delicate and crumbly product,” a spokesperson told the Guardian today (May 26), adding that the company is “aware that recently some customers have received a product which does not meet our usual high standards.

“This has been addressed following recent improvements to production processes, although some prior stock may remain in circulation. We are in the process of liaising with our customers (wholesalers) to support those potentially impacted.”

The future of the ‘Cadbury 99 flake’ cone hangs in the balance. (The horror! The horror!)

But, I mean, do you really give a flake?