Beyond tasting good and freshening breath, chewing gum today increasingly promises dental benefits, like reducing cavities, whitening and even strengthening teeth. Now two brands, Stride and Trident, are putting their money into varieties fortified with ingredients like vitamin C and ginseng to bolster alertness or wellness.

Each piece of Stride Spark, which began appearing in stores in January, provides 25 percent of the recommended daily allowance of the vitamins B-6 and B-12, which are common in energy drinks like Red Bull. The gum, available in Kinetic Mint and Kinetic Fruit flavors, also creates a tingling in the mouth.

“This is the first-ever flavor profile with an oomph you can feel and an oomph you can taste,” said Gary Osifchin, marketing director for both the Stride and Dentyne brands.

Some beverages, like Rockstar and Jolt, make on-the-go gum versions, often containing eye-opening doses of caffeine.

On Gum Alert, a blog that reviews gum on a scale of one gumball (“Foul. Repugnant. Gross”) to five (A Delight!), Stride Spark Kinetic Mint earned three (“Pleasant but lacking that special something.”) Shannon Spare, who along with Katie Reilly is a co-editor of the blog, wrote that the flavor is “an adequate mint that freshens the breath,” but did not like the tingling.

“I find that if I leave the gum in one place for too long, I start to feel a weird tingling sensation that quickly turns to burning,” Spare wrote.

A Trident sub-brand called Vitality, which also went on the market in January, is including unlikely ingredients as well, in this case a flavor called Vigorate with vitamin C, Awaken with ginseng and Rejuve with mint and white tea. Marketing for the product is aimed at consumers older than Stride chewers, from 24 to 34.

“In that age group, there’s a drop-off in gum consumption, and they even start to exit the category,” said Maurice Herrera, Trident marketing director. In focus groups, consumers in that age bracket wanted gum “that embodies more of an air of sophistication,” said Herrera, adding that Vitality is “a big lifestyle play for us.”