Here's The Scoop On The Oldest Ice Cream Company In America

If you've ever wondered about the roots of America's ice cream obsession, look no further than Bassetts Ice Cream. Lewis Dubois Bassett, a schoolteacher who became a dairy farmer, founded Bassetts Ice Cream during 1861 in Salem, New Jersey. He started with a simple mission: To make the richest ice cream possible using fresh, Pennsylvanian cream. Bassetts Ice Cream's products soon proved to be a hit, but there is no way Bassett could have imagined his company would still be serving up scoops over 160 years after he founded it.

What makes Bassetts Ice Cream especially remarkable is its resilience. The company has survived multiple wars and the Great Depression. Because of this durability, Bassetts Ice Cream has become the oldest ice cream company in America and its history is intertwined with the history of the United States itself. What's more, the company continues to gain new fans thanks to global expansion efforts that've seen Bassetts Ice Cream's products shipped to several countries in Asia. 

In the early years, Bassetts Ice Cream grew quickly. After being founded in 1861, the company relocated to Pennsylvania, opening a store in Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market during 1893. (The company still operates a store in this market.) However, there were many challenges coming Bassetts Ice Cream's way, including the Great Depression, both World Wars, and the coronavirus pandemic. Through it all, Bassetts literally kept churning, earning a reputation for excellence and reliability.

Undoubtedly, one of the reasons why Bassetts was able to endure these difficult times was because it manages to strike a balance between innovation and tradition. Take the company's ice cream flavors, for example. As trends have shifted over the decades, with many once popular ice cream flavors all but disappearing for good, Bassetts Ice Cream has maintained its signature flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. While these remain among the most popular ice cream flavors in America, the company has also embraced modern favorites like salted caramel pretzel. (The company even made 50 tubs of borscht-flavored ice cream for Nikita Khrushchev who was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.)

In recent years, Bassetts Ice Cream has gone beyond Philadelphia to reach an international market. While the company remains firmly rooted in the Reading Terminal Market, its products are now available in China, South Korea, and, as of 2020, Taiwan. Considered a luxury treat abroad, Bassetts has found success by highlighting its high-quality ingredients and focusing on new flavors for these global markets. (That being said, the company has yet to release sweet corn ice cream, a style that's extremely popular in South Korea.) 

Selling products abroad has not always been easy. During the pandemic, the company's Chinese partners suffered a significant drop in sales and were forced to pivot from selling ice cream in parlors to selling it via grocery stores and online. The pandemic also made it difficult to ship Bassetts Ice Cream products to China, Taiwan, and South Korea. However, Bassetts found a way to make it work and this successful global expansion is another testament to the company's ability to adapt to changing times and markets. 

Thanks to this expansion, more people than ever before can now enjoy Bassetts Ice Cream's products. Whether they are served in Philadelphia or halfway around the world, these products continue to prove that great ice cream, and a great story, never go out of style.