The short answer is yes. In fact, chewing caffeinated gum appears to work more quickly than ingesting caffeine pills, according to a randomized controlled trial from the International Journal of Pharmaceutics. The researchers compared caffeinated gum, caffeine capsules, and placebos, and they found caffeinated gum worked much faster than caffeine capsules. To be fair, this isn’t saying much, as pills have the slowest absorption rate of any supplement. As an article from Medicare Europe explains, pills first need to pass through your digestive system and be broken down by your stomach before their contents can begin to be absorbed, and this process alone can take upwards of half an hour. This study also found the bioavailability of caffeine from chewing gum and pills to be similar, suggesting caffeine gum works at least as well as caffeine pills in terms of caffeine delivery. Because it’s absorbed more quickly, it’s generally a better choice than caffeine pills like Vivarin.