BORG, or “blackout rage gallon,” refers to a concoction often prepared in a gallon-size plastic jug. It typically containsvodkaor other distilled alcohol, water, a flavor enhancer and an electrolyte powder or drink.
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If you’ve been to a party lately and haven’t seen someone drinking a BORG, you’re likely not partying with college students.
And if you have no idea what that sentence even means, you’re probably not a member ofGeneration Z.
The acronymBORG stands for“blackout rage gallon,” according to theNational Capital Poison Center in Washington, DC.The termrefers to a concoctionoften prepared in a gallon-size plastic jug that typically containsvodkaor other distilled alcohol, water, a flavor enhancer and an electrolyte powder or drink.BORGs are often drunk at outside day parties, otherwise known as darties.
The new version of jungle juice
There’s so much alcohol in a BORG that “drinking one can lead to potentially life-threatening consumption and alcohol poisoning,” said Dr.Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry and addiction medicine at Stanford University in California.
The large-batch drink is the new version of jungle juice, according to Sabrina Grimaldi, the creatorand editor-in-chiefof online lifestyle magazineThe ZillennialZine. The publication targets themicro-generationbetween millennials and Gen Z.
“Instead of making a party-sized mixed drink in a huge 5-gallon drink dispenser, a giant storage tub, or even the grossest trend, which was making jungle juice in a sink or bathtub, everyone has their own personal drink,” Grimaldi wrote CNN in an email.As the drink’s namesuggests,“it’s intended to get you extremely drunk.”
What Lembke calls the BORG’s “social contagion factor” makes it even more dangerous.
“Kids see other kids doing it and want to try it themselves,” she said.“That’s another real danger here — to take a dangerous deviant behavior and normalize it by spreading it on social media.”
Gen Z binge drinking
Grimaldi, who is 24, first heard about BORGs earlier this year when her editorial intern, Kelly Xiong, 21, pitched her astoryon the topic of why they are so popular among GenZers.
“I graduated college in 2020 so it’s safe to say I haven’t been a part of the college party scene in almost 5 years (especially because of the pandemic),” Grimaldi said.“Even though Kelly and I are so close in age, it’s crazy how these microtrends pop up.”
Xiong, whojust graduated fromthe University of Pittsburgh, first learned about BORGs during her sophom*ore year at college.
“It was during a St. Patrick’s Day block darty,and almost everyone had their own BORG,” she told CNNvia email, adding that the drink is particularly popular at big outdoor day parties or“special occasion darties.”
While the origins of the term are difficult to trace, BORGs have made headlines, including in March 2023 whenmore than two dozen University of Massachusetts Amherststudents, many of whom were believed to be carrying BORGS, were carried away by ambulance following an off-campus event.
High school students are drinking BORGs
The trend is not limited to the college demographic.
At the high school seniorclass pool partylast year and this year, “everyone made their ownBORG,” said Virginia, 18, a senior at a private high school in Tampa, Florida, who didn’t want her real name used to protect her privacy.
Virginia said one of the reasons BORGs appeal to her is the social aspect. “You have to name your BORG and get creative by writing the name on it with a Sharpie,” she said.
BORG posts starring gallon jugs with punny names such as Captain Borgan, Our Borg and Savior, Borgan Donor and Borgan Wallen proliferate on TikTok.
Thinking along those lines is part of what makes BORGs potentially dangerous to the people turning to them as a party drink, Lembke said.
Virginia said she recognizes the dangers of drinking BORGs. “A lot of people just pour vodka in and don’t measure it, so it can actually be kind of dangerous as opposed to knowing you drank three cans of beer,” she said.“Nobody is really rationing how much they’re going to drink.”
That’s true even if the person is 21, the legal age to drink in the United States, or older.
Astandard drinkin the UScontains1 to 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, 5 ounces of wine or 12 ounces of beer, according to the National Institutes of Health.For females, drinking more than four standard drinks (and for males, more than five) over a two-hour time frame is considered a binge,according to the NIH.
“A BORG often contains a fifth (25.6 fluid ounces or 3.2 cups)of vodka or other hard alcohol, which is about 17 standard drinks, which is a massive amount of alcohol,” Lembke said.
No amount of alcohol is good for you
It’s actually best not to drink alcohol at all, asa number of recent studies have found thatno amount of drinking is healthy. TheWorld Heart Federation published a policy brief in 2022 saying there is “no level ofalcohol consumption that is safe for health.”
If you do drink, health experts encourage moderation.That’s no more than 3 ounces of alcohol for women or 4 ounces for men over the course of a day, according to the2020-2025Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Lembke also recommended not making a regular habit of it.
The liver processes about 1 ounce of alcohol per hour, or roughly one standard drink per hour, Lembke said. Depending on the alcohol quantity in the mix, drinking a BORG“totally overwhelms the capacity of the liver to metabolize it,” especially for somebody who’s not already tolerant to alcohol, Lembke said.
The fact that BORGS are usually sweetened with a diluting agent such as electrolyte drinks or water flavor enhancers only makes them more dangerous, she said.
“It makes it more palatable, and people generally can drink more than they could of something like straight vodka,” she said.“But that doesn’t increase the liver’s ability to metabolize alcohol better.”
Florida-based freelance journalistTerry Wardlives in Tampa.
