Still operating at its historic Reading Terminal Market counter, family-run Bassetts Ice Cream has been serving its signature scoops since 1861, making it the oldest ice cream company in the nation, writes Christie Ileto for 6abc.
The company is currently in its sixth generation and credits its long-standing success to cherished family recipes and the many unique flavors crafted in Pennsylvania and savored around the globe.
“We were producing ice cream on my great, great, great-grandfather’s farm, where he would make ice cream and cart that into Philadelphia on a horse and buggy,” said Alex Bassett Strange, Bassetts Ice Cream president. “When the Reading Terminal Market opened in 1893, we set up shop here.”
Today, Bassetts Ice Cream is the market’s last remaining original merchant.
The earliest flavors included green tomato, which the company tried to revive, but unfortunately there was not much interest.
“It just didn’t have the appeal that, say, a mint chocolate chip or cookies and cream might have,” said Strange.
Today, the shop offers almost 40 flavors, including the most popular, vanilla, made from a high-quality Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean blend, the same type that has been used for around 100 years.
Read more about Bassetts Ice Cream and its more than 160-year history at 6abc.
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