The Brand Behind Target's Favorite Day Chocolate Candies

Take a wander around the aisles of Target and you'll find a Favorite Day chocolate to suit every mood and moment. From dark chocolate sea salt caramels and peanut butter cups to chocolate brownie bites and milk chocolate pretzels, there's a chocolatey confection for every palate. While the details on the back of each bag of these yummy confections don't mention the name of the manufacturer, there is some evidence online to indicate that some of these products are made by Silvestri Sweets, a company based in Geneva, Illinois.

Back in 2023, the FDA posted a recall announcement from Silvestri Sweets for 8-ounce bags of Favorite Day branded Valentine's Milk Chocolate Covered Caramels with Nonpareils. As this was a seasonal product for Valentine's Day, it isn't currently available on the Target website (however, the store did carry one of the best affordable Valentine's chocolate boxes earlier this year, priced at a pocket-friendly $4.99). Sold in a Favorite Day branded bag with a pink and cream colorway, the milk chocolate-covered caramels were recalled because they may have contained an undeclared tree nut, such as chestnuts, Brazil nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, pine nuts, or cashews. This issue occurred due to a temporary breakdown in the production and packaging process. Meanwhile, current packages of Favorite Day chocolates feature a disclaimer on the back that reads, "processed in a facility that also handles peanut, tree nut and wheat ingredients" to ensure customers with allergies are aware.

The 2023 recall announcement only mentioned the milk chocolate-covered caramels; however, it isn't too big of a jump to assume that other Favorite Day chocolate candies are made by Silvestri Sweets, which also does business as Carousel Candies and Art Coco Chocolate. The company describes itself as a "manufacturer of over 40 varieties of caramel including coffee, fruit and traditional flavors" on its LinkedIn page, which leads to Carousel Candies' website. The images of the products on the website do seem to match up to the appearance of some Favorite Day products, such as the milk chocolate caramel pretzels.

One shopper on Reddit wondered whether Target shares its manufacturer with other grocery stores, stating, "I swear these Favorite Day dark chocolate peanut butter cups are the same as the ones from Trader Joe's!" However, while both stores have their own private label brands, there doesn't seem to be any evidence online to support this claim. If you're wondering what the difference is between Target's two store brands — Favorite Day versus Good & Gather — the former focuses heavily on sweet treats while the latter is all about boosting nutrition and health via staple products. Beyond chocolate candies, the Favorite Day line includes syrups, spreads, frozen popsicles and ice cream, one of which was the winner in our ranking of 19 popular grocery store brand ice creams.