America’s oldest ice cream shop in Philly is gaining popularity across Asia — here’s why

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The first business to sign a lease at Reading Terminal Market back in 1892 is still whipping up creamy confections with milk from Pennsylvania dairy farmers. Now, instead of just slinging ice cream cones in Center City, Bassetts Ice Cream is being exported across Asia.

That has been the case for the past 15 years, with help from a federal agency that insures against business deal losses on export transactions for American businesses to make international trade less risky. So when federal officials from the U.S. Export-Import Bank visited Philadelphia, they made sure to sample the goods and snag an ice cream cone.

“There’s no deal that’s too small,” said Reta Jo Lewis, president of EXIM Bank who got a taste of the Philly-made sweet treat. “Everything from if they wanted to buy an insurance policy for $250 to be able to export something abroad, to something very, very large.”

EXIM Bank sells insurance so American companies don’t lose out if international business partners can’t pay their bills for exported goods.

In April, the bank launched a new nationwide business insurance product meant to serve historically underrepresented businesses, including minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, disability-owned and rural businesses. It’s called the Equity Express Select export credit insurance policy.

“Businesses that export are doing better, employing more people, are more resilient and have the ability to pivot during very difficult and challenging times. We hope to be there every step of the way,” she said. “The way the export credit insurance works is to guard against the actual risk of non-payment.”

Most of EXIM Bank’s customers are small businesses, she said. EXIM Bank has insured $6 million of shipments of Bassetts Ice Cream to international business partners since 2009. International sales account for more than 20% of the ice cream company’s annual revenue, according to its website.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker joined Monday’s visit and got an ice cream cone, lauding the Bassett family’s hard work.

“Think about how many jobs are supported here in Philadelphia. I’m happy that you’re taking a taste of Philly around the world so people understand the quality that comes out of our city,” Parker said amid a bustling crowd of shoppers and diners. Her standby order at the ice cream parlor is one scoop of vanilla and one of chocolate that she mixes, she said.

The ice cream maker’s new president, Alex Bassett Strange, said the company was inspired to start selling new flavors to meet international customer demands.

“Matcha, which we otherwise probably would not have formulated, but we were exporting to China, South Korea and Taiwan,” said Bassett Strange, who was promoted from executive vice president in recent years.

Other flavors that are hits across Asia include American mainstays like butter pecan or strawberry peach but also new fruit and nut combinations like pomegranate blueberry chocolate chunk or toasted coconut.

“These are some flavors that have international influence but are still made in the United States and then exported,” he said.

To ensure the product would meet these new customer standards, the ice cream company worked with another Reading Terminal business, Tea Leaf, on different green tea blends of matcha powder. And it also uses Hershey’s chocolate syrups — another iconic Pennsylvania brand.

Bassett Strange is the great-great-great-grandson of the ice cream empire’s founder, Lewis Dubois Bassett. He scooped his first cone on the clock at the Reading Terminal parlor at 15 years old working for his uncle over the summertime. He said he remembers the company’s first expansion into the market in China with ice cream and mooncakes — a baked good eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

For example, milk is sold by the gallon with 2% or 3% milk fat or skim milk. But ice cream has to be at least 10% milk fat, in accordance with FDA rules. The Bassett family recipe calls for 16% milk fat but is slightly less sweet than some competitors on the market, which in Asia is more likely to be made with soy milk.

Bassett Strange credits the company’s longevity to a combination of sticking to the tried and true recipe, a strong sense of financial literacy and paying higher than minimum wages for workers — even the surge of seasonal employees during the summer months. But the parlor is open year-round just like the indoor market, and Bassett Strange is known to sample ice cream every single day — for quality assurance purposes, of course.

“I know I wax poetic about my great-great-great-grandfather’s recipe, but if you just have that and not good customer service, there’s no reason for them to come back,” he said.