What if I chew it or even worse, just wash it down with some water? Do I lose any of the benefits?
I would think it would be OK, because I can’t imagine all that zinc being absorbed into the bloodstream from the mouth. The reason that things like B12 sublingual tablets exist is because the body metabolizes a lot of it from the stomach before your body can do anything with it. An under-the-tongue method sends it straight to the bloodstream. According to Cold-eeze’s website, there’s 13.3mg of zinc in each lozenge, which is actually less than I thought, but the same people also make it in tablet form, which is just meant to be swallowed.
So in the end, my educated WAG is no, you can swallow them just fine.
Yup, that’s true, and even if you take it in pill form, you’ll still get the same soothing, terrible taste in your mouth for most of the day. I’m really surprised they don’t market this stuff as a weight-loss supplement. Take it before a meal or snack, and nothing will taste good! 
Zinc is a bactericide, fungicide and antiviral material. I think the main point of using one is to keep it in the mouth as long as you can and kill what is in your mouth and throat.
Those Cold-Eze things are so foul I throw up a little in my mouth just thinking about them! Luckily, Trader Joe’s sells a very nice tangerine flavored zinc lozenge that also has slippery elm in it and it’s very throat soothing as well as tasting quite good. Very cheap, too, something like five bucks for a jar of 100 tabs.
Does anyone else find that those sorbitol based lozenges and candies cause massive sticky plaque buildup on teeth or is that just my misfortune?
If you’re taking it for cold and flu mitigation or prevention, one sure-fire way of solving the taste problem is to just stop taking them. The evidence that they have any effect at all is weak, and getting weaker every time it’s studied. Recent review here for example. It’s pretty clear they don’t have the miraculous effects early studies claimed, and you might ask yourself whether it’s worth it or not to reduce a cold or flu by a few hours, even if there is some effect.
TimeWinder: What, and be denied that fresh zinc taste? I’d sooner remove the mustard-and-horse-shit poultice from my chest!
Well, that’s great to know. In addition to not having any effect on colds:
"chronic zinc intake of greater than 40 mg/day can lead to malfunctioning of the immune system and chronic fatigue (various brands of lozenges have between 5 and 24 mg of zinc in each lozenge). "
A slight hijack, but we are on the topic of cold prevention/cures, so I thought I’d mention this:
The makers of Airborne are being sued in a class-action lawsuit for making false claims and making up a clinical study that they never did.