Bassetts unveils Axios' "Brevity Blue" shake for charity

Driving the news: About a year ago, Strange started a charity shake program that donates to local nonprofits each month.

• Bassetts Ice Cream teamed up with Axios on this month's shake, the "Brevity Blue," aka the PB&J shake.
• It's strawberry and peanut butter ice cream, swirled with peanut butter sauce and blueberry jam, topped with whipped cream.

The intrigue: For every purchase of the "Brevity Blue" ($12), Bassetts is donating $3 to the Children's Literacy Initiative — a program helping mold the next generation of journalists.

Zoom in: Bassetts, the oldest ice cream shop in the U.S., has been around since Abraham Lincoln got inaugurated as president, Strange tells Axios.

• It all traces back to a dairy farm in Salem, New Jersey, where Strange's third great-grandfather, a Quaker teacher, started the company.
• Now based out of Philly, the shop sells ice cream wholesale and ships their product internationally, Strange says.

Flashback: Bassetts is one of the few remaining original merchants still around since Reading Terminal Market opened in 1893, Strange says.

• They serve nearly 40 flavors over the same marble countertop installed when the shop opened.

What they're saying: Strange, part of the sixth generation to take over the shop, says ice cream inspires nostalgia and reconnects you with your inner child.

• "I meet these people that say, 'Oh, I'm taking my grandchild to get an ice cream cone just like my grandparents took me here to Bassetts,'" says Strange.

1 cool thing: Strange tells Axios he's teamed up with the Pearl's Oyster Bar on a specialty ice cream, a flavor preferred by former First Lady Dolley Madison, which will be unveiled at Bassetts annual ice cream festival on July 13 along Filbert Street.