Two summers ago, I spent a week up in Lake Tahoe, one of my favorite places in the world. There was just one impediment to my summertime freedom: I had a deadline for the International Chocolate Salon that fell smack in the middle of the vacation. I had judged most of the bars for that spring’s awards, the 2024 Top Chocolate Bar Awards, but there were a few left. A more reasonable person would have rescheduled her vacation—we chocolate judges take our pro bono chocolate judging duties very seriously—but my brain could not grasp why not just take the chocolates with me and judge them at my destination.
Fair enough, but there was another issue: I usually do intricate tabletops with specific entries. Not a part of the job by any means, but I’ve been doing them for years, and each award season brings numerous new entries that deserve a proper tabletop.
How do you do tabletop photography at a lake?
Where there is a chocolate-dipped will… there is a chocolate-drenched way.
Before I get to the two chocolate bars and their makers, I should set the stage for a decidedly memorable photo expedition on that beautiful summer day…
Photography: Sand Harbor, a lakeside park on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe is particularly popular with influencers (darn Instagram), and with good reason. Countless nooks and crannies to take those selfies without too much of a vertical drop if you slip while pouting into your smartphone. Also a natural choice for chocolate laketop photography.1
This was by far the most physically demanding shoot I’ve ever done. I got up at dawn, packed the bars in a cool container, braved beach traffic into the park, and shivered in the early morning hours waiting for the kayak rental place to open. Once I had my kayak set up, chocolate bars safely tucked away in the hold, I set off to scout locations for my top secret cacao mission. It couldn’t be on shore—too many people, too many kids and animals, and way too much noise. Besides, I had already done a beach shoot on the East Coast. It had to be out there, on the lake, far from tourists.
Thankfully I didn’t need to cross oceans. Lake Tahoe has plenty of stunning rock formations fairly close to shore—perfect natural “tabletops.” Just a few things you have to be aware of when you’re shooting chocolate in the middle of summer on a lake:
There’s a key difference between water and land. Water moves. Constantly. So, can’t exactly use a tripod—you need a strong core and well-toned arms to compensate for the waves.
The wave motion trips you up in three dimensions: front/back, side/side, and up/down. Forget any long exposures.
Multitasking becomes a true skill here: you’ve got two arms and two legs, and that’s all you have to juggle kayak orientation, your paddle, all that silly safety gear you’ve got on, the (expensive, non waterproof) camera (and lens cap), and the chocolate bar/s. Not to mention not a lot of space in the kayak itself.
Chocolate and heat don’t make great friends; they mix well only on your tongue and in your tummy. Not on sun-baked rocks. Sure, it was freezing at dawn, but that changed real fast once the sun came up, and the altitude of Lake Tahoe doesn’t help. (Higher altitude = more intense sunlight). So I had to find the ideal locations fast, and shoot even faster.
Should you worry about seabird guano contaminating your precious chocolate bar? Perhaps. But I’m still here, so, all good. I’d say choose your rocks wisely though.
Heaven help you if you drop your chocolate bar in the water. Good quality chocolate sinks.
Want that perfect shot, with the angle and lighting just so? On a lake as windy as Lake Tahoe? Yeah, haha. This is where prayer—and sheer will—come in very handy.
I shot two chocolate brands that day—Rainy Day and Chocopunto by Mabel. Rainy Day’s bars fit perfectly in a long horizontal crevice I discovered hidden among some wind-worn boulders jutting out of the lake (see header image above and the two closeups below). Chocopunto had 3 bars entered into the Awards, but I only took the 78% bar out for this photoshoot. You have to be realistic with how many shots you can get in before it all melts away. Which, as you’ll see at the end, it dutifully did.
I’m proud to say I did not lose a single item on this shoot, and even managed to hang out in a few magical places I found on the lake, which I’m definitely not sharing with all you influencers.
Chocolate maker: Rainy Day Chocolate
In hindsight, it’s a touch ironic, the name of this chocolate maker. No, it didn’t rain at Tahoe, but there was lots of water splashing around the two bars that Rainy Day Chocolate’s owners Jennifer and Chris sent in for the awards. Little did they know how far their bars would travel, and where they’d end up to have their beauty shots taken—images as whimsical as their raindrop logo.
Based in Sonoma County, California, Rainy Day Chocolate is, in their own words, a “bean-to-bar chocolate company dedicated to crafting exceptional chocolate with heart, intention, and integrity.” They do small-batch production, carefully choose where they source their cacao beans, and work on flavors that are “comforting and adventurous.”
Well, I certainly had an adventure with their 69% Guatemalan Chocolate and their 72% Tanzanian Chocolate bars.
Location: Forestville, California
Awards: Pardon the pun, but… Rainy Day came home with four awards to stash away for a rainy day, from the 2024 San Francisco Chocolate Salon Awards. All for its 72% Tanzanian Chocolate bar:
Silver in the Best Chocolate Bar and the Best Dark Chocolate Bar categories
Honorable Mention in the Best Taste and the Best Texture categories
72% Tanzanian Chocolate Bar
Cacao Muse review: This bar made me sneeze twice. For me, that’s a sign it’s real cacao. And yes, I always sneeze twice. Why does that happen? Alright, real quick tangent: apparently it’s a genetic thing that confuses your trigeminal nerve (technically, Cranial Nerve 5 or CN V, a large nerve in your head that splits into three, and by the way you have two of those, one on each side of your head). Scientists aren’t quite sure what causes the sneeze, but some sources say it might be theobromine stimulating the vagus nerve, which then triggers the trigeminal nerve. I’ve observed over the years that it’s the chocolates with intense flavors or aroma that make me sneeze. It’s always the dark chocolates, never milk, white, or ruby. After those two Hello cacao! sneezes, my nerves chill out, and I can have multiple bars without issue.
It makes sense that this bar would make me sneeze—the cacao comes from the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania, Africa, fermented by a specialty fermentation facility called Kokoa Kamili. And as you can see in the Tasting Notes below, it’s a delightfully rich and fragrant chocolate.
Tasting Notes: The chocolate runs smooth and velvety, a strong earthy flavor with notes of tangy citrus and cherries, and just a hint of lemon—and that’s all from the Tanzanian cacao!
Percentage: 72%
Origin: Kilombero Valley, Morogoro, Tanzania
Ingredients: Cacao seeds [beans], organic cane sugar
Price: $45 for a set of 3 bars
After the Rainy Day shoot, I paddled around the shore to locate the best spot for the next bar, the 78% Dark Chocolate from Chocopunto by Mabel. Happily, I found just the place not too far away from the first group of boulders—another, but larger, group of boulders.
Imagine kayaking in Lake Tahoe on a beautiful sunny day, when you spot something on one of the rocks you’re paddling by. You come a little closer… and closer, and realize, OMG it’s a chocolate bar! There were a few people paddling around me who wondered what in the world I was doing…
Here is the full image of the wide shot to give you a better view. I had to get close enough to the boulder to balance the bar in the crevice, make sure it would stay, and then maneuver my kayak to just the right distance and angle to take the shot.
Always, always bring a variable lens for these laketop shoots. I cannot imagine having to swap lenses while trying to keep a kayak stable on the water. Here is the full medium shot, taken from essentially the same spot:
… and finally, the semi close-up, in full packaging…
… and au naturel, as it were. Chocolate bars have zero shame. Well, it was hot.
Chocolate maker: Chocopunto by Mabel
Chocopunto by Mabel has been winning awards for its bars since 2020, from the local to the global: Concurso Dominicano de Chocolate, International Chocolate Awards, International Chocolate Salon, and the Academy of Chocolate. It’s been a lovely presence in the awards I’ve judged for the past 8 years.
Location: Dominican Republic
Awards: The 78% Dark Chocolate bar was awarded three times in the 2024 San Francisco Chocolate Salon Awards:
Gold in the Best Dark Chocolate Bar category
Bronze in the Best Chocolate Bar category
Honorable Mention in the Best Texture category
78% Dark Chocolate
Cacao Muse review: Chocopunto’s bars have never disappointed. The company crafts consistently sublime chocolate, which yields, not surprisingly, a consistent pattern of honors and awards. The higher percentages are my personal favorites. This 78% bar is a bold, hearty dark chocolate that pairs well with red wine, and adds a full-bodied flavor when grated on top of yogurt, cheesecake, or other pastries.
Tasting Notes: Deep wood and earth with a hint of maple. A rich, full-bodied chocolate flavor, smooth, not too much floral or fruity flavor or aroma, but a nice strong astringent mouthfeel that makes your mouth water and lingers in your palate long after the last bit of chocolate has melted away.
Percentage: 78%
Origin: Dominican Republic
Ingredients: Organic cacao mass, organic cacao butter, organic cane sugar.
Price: (Not listed)
A parting note: I mentioned earlier that chocolate on hot rocks doesn’t last too long. Here is one of the last shots I took, as the bar was starting to collapse in the heat… and I still had to judge it.
If you’re shaking your head and wondering what on Earth possessed me to take photos of chocolate bars on boulders in the middle of a lake, I have no explanation other than this is who we creatives are. Our brains spin up crazy ideas, and we go make them happen. I’m likely the very first person to have done a chocolate photoshoot on Lake Tahoe. This excursion was truly a marriage of my three loves: kayaking, photography, and chocolate. Would I do it again? Indeed, I would, multiple times over.
If you enjoy these wild ‘n wacky chocolate reviews, but can’t do a monthly subscription, I do accept virtual hot chocolates! They keep my chocolate fridge running.
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You read it here first folks: laketop photography!
Loved the shots of chocolate out in nature! As usual your writing brought us right into the scene and flavors. I have no idea how you managed to multitask with kayak, camera and chocolate bars, getting those shots without an accident, but the results were well worth it!
Wow! You are daredevil! Amazing you managed all acrobatics of kayak and taking shots which are all excellent. The writing? Wonderful, fresh as pristine clear stream in forest. Love it!