The present invention involves a novel chewing gum formulation and a method of making the same. The chewing gum formulation is used to form a final chewing gum composition which contains an active ingredient which is released from the chewing gum as the gum is masticated in the mouth of the user. The chewing gum made from the chewing gum composition of the present invention is initially a compressed body, such as a tablet, which quickly dissociates into a multiplicity of small pieces upon initial chewing followed by a reformation of the pieces into a coherent mass of chewing gum after a few seconds of chewing. Both the chewing gum formulation and the chewing gum composition are in the form of a free-flowing particulate which is capable of being directly compressed at high speed by a standard tableting machine into chewing gum tablets.