What’s a BORG, Anyway?
Photo by The Impulsive Buy/Creative Commons
If you’ve aged out of the college party scene, you may be confused about why you’ve seen so many photos and videos of college students carrying around gallon jugs full of pastel-colored liquids and adorned with witty slogans. Ladies, gentlemen and non-binary folks, behold the borg, also known as a “black out rage gallon.” Gen-Zers are forgoing the hunch punch that likely primed much of my generation for diabetes and are instead opting for this homemade mixture of cobbled-together liquids.
But what’s actually in these jugs? Read an explainer from your local news, and you may assume the worst. (These outlets always seem to want to cause an uproar in overly concerned helicopter parents.) In reality, it’s usually a pretty simple mixture: water, liquor (generally vodka—these are college kids, remember?), liquid IV and some sort of flavoring, often MiO.
When everyone at a party is carrying around a plastic jug of colored liquid, it would be understandably easy to set your drink down somewhere only to forget which one was yours, which is ostensibly why some drinkers decide to name their borgs. They’re generally clever: The Gettysborg Address, Borg-anized crime and Demiborgon are some of my favorites.
Does this beverage sound appealing to me in any way? No. But I’ve been out of college for a while, and I’m boring. Also, I can legally buy a drink at a bar. However, I totally get how this could be a smart way to drink. As some have pointed out, because borgs have caps on them, it’s much more difficult for someone to slip something into your drink, which has historically been a huge problem on college campuses. And in light of the pandemic, it makes sense to drink from a personal container rather than dipping your used Solo cup into a communal punch bowl.