Energy drinks may give you that much needed boost to make it through yet another afternoon of strategic planning meetings, but they've got a few inherent problems: They need to be kept cold. They don't fit in your pocket. They can be expensive. And they make you piss like a racehorse.

Which is what led an emergency room doc to spend two years developing VE2, an energy gum that delivers a quick boost while you chew.

Cheap ($1.69 for a 10-piece pack), sugarless, and portable enough to keep in your pocket, two pieces have as much caffeine as a cup of coffee or an 8-ounce energy drink. And since caffeine is absorbed quickly through your oral membranes, you get the effects much faster than with energy drinks, which are absorbed only after passing through the stomach. VE2 also has vitamins B6 and B12, niacin, ginseng and guarana, to up your alertness level without subjecting you to a crash.

And besides costing only 35 cents per serving, not needing to be refrigerated, or making you run to the bathroom every 10 minutes, it'll also give you minty fresh breath.

$1.69 for a 10-piece pack
www.ve2energy.com
Available at Fry Electronics.