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 of Generation Z.
The acronym BORG stands for “blackout rage gallon,” according to the National Capital Poison Center in Washington, DC. The term refers to a concoction often prepared in a gallon-size plastic jug that typically contains vodka or 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 large-batch drink is the new version of jungle juice, according to Sabrina Grimaldi, the creator and editor-in-chief of online lifestyle magazine The Zillennial Zine. The publication targets the micro-generation between 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 name suggests, “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.”
“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, who just graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, first learned about BORGs during her sophomore year at college.
“It was during a St. Patrick’s Day block darty, and almost everyone had their own BORG,” she told CNN via 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 when more than two dozen University of Massachusetts Amherst students, many of whom were believed to be carrying BORGS, were carried away by ambulance following an off-campus event.
At the high school senior class pool party last year and this year, “everyone made their own BORG,” 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.”
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And if you have no idea what that sentence even means, you’re probably not a member of Generation Z.
The acronym BORG stands for “blackout rage gallon,” according to the National Capital Poison Center in Washington, DC. The term refers to a concoction often prepared in a gallon-size plastic jug that typically contains vodka or 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 creator and editor-in-chief of online lifestyle magazine The Zillennial Zine. The publication targets the micro-generation between 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 name suggests, “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 a story on the topic of why they are so popular among Gen Zers.“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, who just graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, first learned about BORGs during her sophomore year at college.
“It was during a St. Patrick’s Day block darty, and almost everyone had their own BORG,” she told CNN via 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 when more than two dozen University of Massachusetts Amherst students, 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 senior class pool party last year and this year, “everyone made their own BORG,” 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.”
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