What Is a BORG?
BORG is a drinking trend that's popular on social media and with college students. People who follow this trend carry their own 1-gallon container filled with a mixture of alcohol, water, and flavoring when they go out with friends or to parties. They drink from this container all night.
Students say they use BORGs to prevent people from spiking their drink. They claim the practice also helps them avoid catching germs like COVID from drink sharing. But experts say the large amount of alcohol in these gallon-sized containers encourages binge drinking and can lead to health problems.
What does BORG mean?
The letters in “BORG” stand for “blackout rage gallon.” The trend gets its name from the size of the container and its effects. Each 1-gallon jug holds enough alcohol to get someone blackout drunk during a night of partying.
What does a BORG look like?
A BORG looks like a gallon jug of milk or water that's instead filled with colored liquid. Depending on the flavoring people use, the liquid could be red, blue, yellow, orange, or green.
People who make these bottles often write a pop culture, BORG-related phrase on them in magic marker. Some popular phrases include:
- "Maybe she's BORG with it"
- "Breaking BORG"
- "Captain Borgan"
- "Sponge Borg Square Pants"
- "Ruth Bader Ginsborg"
The BORG Drinking Trend
BORG drinking is basically the same as binge drinking, which has been around for decades. In the 1940s and 1950s, going on a "binge" meant drinking heavily over a few days. By the 1990s, the meaning changed. Now a binge is when you have:
- Four or more alcoholic drinks in about 2 hours if you're a woman or were assigned female at birth
- Five or more alcoholic drinks in about 2 hours if you're a man or were assigned male at birth
The concept of BORG started as a drinking game on college campuses in around 2018. The popularity grew over the next few years as #BORG went viral on TikTok. In 2024, there were 16,500 posts with this hashtag. Some of those posts had a million views or more.
BORG Ingredients
A BORG starts with a gallon-sized jug of water. People who make one of these drinks first dump out half of the water. Then they add up to a fifth of vodka, which is equal to 750 milliliters or 25 ounces of liquor, plus flavored drink mixes or other flavor enhancers.
The flavor enhancers can contain ingredients like:
- Caffeine
- B vitamins
- Artificial sweeteners
- Food dyes
- Cannabis
Some drinkers also add electrolyte powder. Electrolytes include essential minerals like sodium, potassium, and magnesium.
How much alcohol is in a BORG?
The BORG recipes featured on TikTok contain up to a fifth, or about 25 ounces of vodka. That's equal to around 17 standard 1.5-ounce shots of liquor.
Most vodkas and similar liquors are 80 proof. That means they contain 40% alcohol by volume (ABV) — in other words, 40% of vodka is alcohol.
Some people don't accurately measure the alcohol when they make a BORG. If you pour liquor from a bigger bottle, you could add more than a fifth of alcohol.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend that people who are women or were assigned female at birth have no more than one standard 1.5-ounce drink per day. Men and those assigned male should have no more than two drinks per day. The less you drink, the better. No amount of alcohol is safe for your health, according to the World Health Organization.
BORG Benefits
People who drink from a BORG and promote this practice on TikTok say it has a few benefits compared to regular drinks:
- There's less chance of someone spiking your drink with drugs like flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) or gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) because you drink from your own sealed container that you carry around all night.
- There's less risk of catching or spreading germs because you're the only one drinking from the container.
- You're less likely to get dehydrated because the BORG contains a lot of water.
- You might also avoid a hangover the next day because of the extra hydration.
But experts say the risks of BORG drinking far outweigh any benefits.
BORG Drinking Risks
People who drink BORGs claim that the water and electrolytes they contain balance out the harmful effects of the alcohol. Even though a BORG is half water, it still contains far more alcohol than any one person should drink in a day. Because a BORG contains flavoring and water, it can feel like you're drinking much less alcohol than you really are.
Consuming an excess of alcohol over a few hours is called binge drinking. The CDC considers binge drinking:
- Four or more drinks on one occasion for women and those assigned female at birth
- Five or more drinks on one occasion for men and those assigned male at birth
Alcohol is toxic to your body. That's why you have systems in place to remove it. Your liver breaks down alcohol so your body can get rid of it and other toxins. But your liver can only process about 1 ounce of alcohol each hour. When you drink large amounts of liquor, it overwhelms your liver. Alcohol backs up in your tissues until your liver can process it.
Binge drinking can lead to short-term and long-term health problems, such as:
- An increased risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies
- Inflammation of the pancreas called pancreatitis
- Liver disease
- Head, neck, esophagus, liver, breast, and colorectal cancers
- Damage to the brain, heart, and lungs
In 2023, 46 students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst had to go to the hospital for treatment after they took part in a BORG drinking challenge. None of the students had serious injuries and they were all discharged, but this incident illustrates the risks of drinking excess amounts of alcohol in a short period of time.
One of the most serious risks of BORG drinking is alcohol poisoning. That's when you have so much alcohol in your blood that it shuts down the parts of your brain that control your breathing, body temperature, and heart rate.
Symptoms of alcohol poisoning include:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Confusion
- Dizziness
- Trouble breathing
- Low body temperature
- Blue, gray, or pale skin
- Passing out
Alcohol poisoning is a life-threatening emergency that requires medical help right away. It can lead to choking, severe dehydration, and seizures without quick treatment.
Alcohol isn't the only ingredient that can cause health problems. People often add flavor enhancers, called "squeezers," to their BORG. Each serving of these flavorings contains around 60 milligrams of caffeine. By comparison, a soda contains 30 to 40 milligrams of caffeine. One BORG may contain several servings of squeezable flavor.
Mixing alcohol with caffeine is risky. The caffeine makes you feel more alert and masks the effects of alcohol on your body, which may make you think you can drink even more. Mixing alcohol and caffeine also increases the risk for high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and dehydration. Some people are more sensitive than others to the effects of caffeine.
Can you still get hungover?
People who promote BORG drinking say it won't cause a hangover because the alcohol is mixed with a half-gallon of water. But drinking extra fluid won't get rid of the alcohol you're consuming. Even though it's mixed with water, a BORG contains enough alcohol to cause a severe hangover the next day.
Symptoms of a hangover include:
- Headache
- Tiredness
- Nausea
- Thirst
- Muscle aches
BORG Drinking Harm Reduction
Experts say BORGs aren't safe to drink. But if you are going to drink a BORG, to make it less risky, add only the recommended amount of alcohol.
Wake Forest University has created a Borg Calculator to help college students know how much alcohol is safe to put into their BORG. You enter your sex, weight in pounds, and how many hours you plan to drink into the calculator. Then it tells you how many ounces or shots of liquor you can add to your BORG. Carefully measure out each shot so you know exactly how much alcohol is in your drink.
If you make a BORG, also skip the caffeine. It masks the effects of alcohol on your body. And if you do add caffeine, limit the number of servings. For healthy adults, the FDA recommends no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day -- about the amount that's in four or five cups of coffee.
Also follow these tips to avoid drinking too much alcohol:
- Set a drink limit for yourself and don't have more than that.
- Pour your own drinks so you know what's in them and how much alcohol you're consuming.
- Drink slowly. The faster you drink, the quicker your blood alcohol level rises.
- Don't share drinks with other people.
- Add ice to your drinks to dilute them.
- Spread out your drinks over several hours and sip them slowly.
- Drink a glass of water in between each drink, and also before you go to bed.
When you feel like you've had too much to drink, stop. If you can't stop, ask for help from someone who is sober. Whenever you drink, make sure you have someone who hasn't been drinking available to drive you home.
If you or any of your friends have symptoms of alcohol poisoning, stop drinking and get medical help right away.
BORG alternatives
You can still drink with your friends without risking the health effects from BORG. One way is to make the BORG recipe in a single serving container using one shot of alcohol. Or drink a lower-alcohol beverage like light beer or seltzer. Even better, drink "mocktails" like seltzer water mixed with lime juice or cranberry juice instead of alcohol.
When to Get Help
If you feel sick after drinking a BORG, call Poison Control at 800-222-1222. Someone is available to answer your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Alcohol poisoning is a medical emergency. Call 911 if you or someone else has symptoms like these:
- Breathing too fast or too slowly (fewer than eight breaths per minute)
- Confusion
- Trouble walking
- Blue lips
- Cold hands and feet
- Throwing up more than once
- Trouble staying awake or passing out and you can't wake them up
Takeaways
People who follow the drinking trend called BORG say that carrying their own closed container of alcohol prevents drink spiking and the spread of germs. But the amount of alcohol in the gallon jug is far more than any person should drink at one time.
BORGs won't prevent hangovers. They could lead to alcohol poisoning. And the amount of caffeine added from flavorings can mask the effects of the alcohol, causing you to drink much more alcohol than is safe for you.
BORG FAQs
How strong is a BORG drink?
The most common recipe for a BORG drink includes a fifth of vodka or other liquor. Most vodka is 80 proof, meaning that its alcohol content is 40%.
How many drinks is a BORG equivalent to?
Each standard-sized drink contains 1.5 ounces of alcohol. The amount of alcohol in the average BORG is equivalent to 17 standard-sized drinks.
Does BORG get you drunk?
BORG contains much more than enough alcohol to get one person drunk. BORG stands for "blackout rage gallon." "Blackout" means you are so drunk that you can't remember what happened while you were drinking.
What are the dangers of the BORG?
Experts recommend drinking no more than one alcoholic beverage per day for women and people assigned female at birth, and no more than two drinks per day for men and those assigned male. A BORG contains eight to 17 times the amount of alcohol that people should drink in a day.
The amount of alcohol in the typical BORG is more than your liver can process and remove. Binge drinking can lead to many short-term and long-term health problems, including liver and pancreatic disease, several types of cancer, and brain damage.
How long does BORG last?
A BORG is designed to contain enough alcohol to get someone through a whole night of partying.
How many shots of vodka are in a BORG?
Each BORG contains about 17 shots of vodka or other hard liquor. BORGs can contain more alcohol than that if the person who made it didn't carefully measure out the alcohol.
