Ciripella: Lake Balaton ice cream shop offers crunchy ice cream flavoured with crickets
Attila Pálfi, the creative pastry chef of the Vitorlás ice cream shop in Balatonmáriafürdő, has come up with another eye-catching ice cream speciality. Under the name Ciripella, he has created an ice cream flavoured with crickets. The new flavour is a caramel, chocolate, and hazelnut-based dessert, made truly unique by a crunchy cricket topping.
According to the local news outlet sonline.hu, the idea came to Mr Pálfi during a night swim last summer. “I wanted to create something special connected to Lake Balaton,” he said. As there were many mosquitoes, he initially considered making a mosquito-flavoured ice cream. However, only four insect species are approved for human consumption in the European Union, and mosquitoes are not among them. Therefore, he turned to crickets instead.
Ciripella – The chocolate sings, the cricket crunches
Cricket-flavoured ice cream is not entirely new in Europe. In Germany, a new type of ice cream has been made using insect flour. However, a version served with whole crickets is uniquely Hungarian and available exclusively at the Vitorlás ice cream shop at Lake Balaton.
The base of Ciripella is a caramel, chocolate, and hazelnut Gianduja ice cream, sprinkled with salted, caramelised crickets upon the guest’s request, in place of sugar. The pastry chef orders the insects from the Czech Republic and says their taste most closely resembles sunflower seeds.
The new cricket ice cream is very popular
The new variety has proven more popular than another unique Hungarian flavour — the lángos-flavoured ice cream. “I’ve already had to order another batch of crickets. I’m surprised by how open people are. Not only do adventurous young people try it, but older guests also boldly give it a go,” the renowned pastry chef said.
Creating unique flavours is nothing new for Attila Pálfi. Among the 28 flavours available at the Vitorlás ice cream shop are mint cucumber, fried fish (hake – hekk), and cheese and sour cream lángos ice creams. The latter won a special award at the Balaton Ice Cream Competition. Ciripella was created for the 2025 competition, where the jury praised its uniqueness and creative connection to Lake Balaton.
Innovation does not stop
Further surprises await customers at Lake Balaton during the summer season. Attila Pálfi openly admits that he is constantly experimenting to delight his guests with something special. A spinach ice cream based on kiwi sorbet has already been created, and more new inventions are expected this summer. “I want to bring innovation to the profession,” he said. “And I’m glad people like it.”
Read also:
- A Hungarian ice cream maker was named the world’s best in a new ranking – read more HERE
- You’ve never heard of ice cream like this: after cheese and cream lángos, another Hungarian ice cream to be tasted