When you’re a university student you’ll do anything to avoid having a hangover.
Uni is known for its excessive drinking culture with most parties and events involving alcohol. Sure drinking is fun, but who really wants to be severely hungover the next day?
Well, this generation of students might have found a way to hack the drinking life: BORGs. Yes I know it sounds like an alien species but it in fact stands for “blackout rage gallon,” and it’s become the drink of choice for many US students.
The hashtag ‘borg’ currently has 73.3 million views on TikTok, so clearly it’s popular.
“It’s essentially a hack to drink a bunch, have a crazy night, and not feel terrible the next day,” user @justaddbuoy says.
The drink is made with half water, half vodka, a caffeinated flavour preservative and powdered electrolytes. God knows if it tastes any good, but the students on TikTok say it works like a charm.
TikTok user Erin Monroe who is credentialed in substance use prevention says she likes the borg.
“You get to decide what goes in here, you get complete control over this and that means even if you don’t want to put liquor in, you don’t have to,” she says.
She also notes that it’s in a closed bottle so it limits the risk of someone spiking your drink.
Not everyone is a fan of the borg though. One user commented on cooky_colin’s video saying “so it’s watered down vodka? why not just put the water flavoring in the vodka and just drink that.”
Another user shared the same concerns “liquid to alcohol ratio is very low tho, it’s like drinking beer.” One user worried about the temperature of the drink said, “it would be warm by the end of the night.”
Though the aim is to reduce the negative effects of heavy drinking David Jernigan, a professor in the department of health law, policy, and management at Boston University, told Boston 25 News, drinking borgs wont “meaningfully reduce the risks of drinking.”
“There’s still a dangerous drug in that drink. It’s called alcohol,” he adds.