They’re about to go over-borg.
This St. Patrick’s Day, Gen Z party animals with a thirst for danger will be chugging down gallons of a curious cocktail that recently put dozens of their peers in the hospital.
Only this time, it will be green.
“Make BORG with me — we’re doing green cause it’s Saint Patty’s Day,” reveler Rachel Burney, 22, said enthusiastically in a recent TikTok tutorial.
The fun-loving blonde is just one of 99.8 million guzzlers using the viral hashtag #BORG — a trendy acronym for “blackout rage gallons” — to show off their the buzzy concoctions, which are typically comprised of a half gallon of water to aid with hydration, a generous slosh of vodka, a jolt of caffeine and a powdered electrolyte.
The boozy blend, which has been touted as a “hangover free” drink online since its digital debut in 2020, skyrocketed to social media glory in early February.
It has been suggested that the potent potion’s popularity can be in part attributed to distanced drinking during the pandemic, as well as a curb against drink spiking at parties, with everyone chugging from their own jug.
This month, as a festive twist in honor of the patron saint of Ireland, Burney and others are advising followers to add in several squirts of Mio’s “Green Thunder” — a caffeinated flavor enhancer that tastes like green apple and also includes Vitamin B — to give a vibrant splash of seasonal pizzazz.
Some of the amateur mixologists advocate for topping off the mix with a few dashes of green food coloring, to amp up the glow factor.
“My borg’s name is ‘Borg leaf clover,’” said college student Haley Myruski with a smile as she proudly flaunted her green gallon on TikTok — where giving the mélange an outlandishly punny nickname before consumption has become an unspoken rule of thumb, no matter the time of year.
“My borg’s name is ‘Shenanigans and Sham-Borgs,” said a brunette boasting her own green canteen in separate St. Paddy’s day post.
Most borg recipes call for a fifth of alcohol, which equals about 16 drinks (the CDC defines binge-drinking as consuming five or more alcoholic beverages).
But many Gen Z merrymakers online often pour their vodka liberally, or, as Burney’s pal put it in her video, “enough to die.”
On March 4, twenty-eight ambulances and a swarm of additional emergency vehicles were called to rush a “significant number” of students from the University of Massachusetts—Amherst to the hospital for alcohol intoxication.
The partygoers were said to be glugging borgs as part of the school’s yearly “Blarney Blowout” St. Patrick’s Day festivities.
None of the cases of alcohol poisoning were life-threatening, UMass police reported in a press release. Two people were arrested for underage drinking.
On Wednesday, ahead of the forthcoming holiday weekend, Boston University released an advisory, discouraging students from borg binging.
“Many recipes call for 17 shots of liquor. Even if consumed over many hours, this is enough to cause an emergency,” reads the bulletin from the school’s Health Services department.
And to students who plan to make a Borg despite the risks, the memo urges, “Use less alcohol than the recipe calls for: measure out one shot per hour you plan on drinking.”
“Check in with yourself and your friends,” the warning concludes. “Be aware of how you’re feeling, take breaks and don’t leave your drink unattended to reduce the risk of drink spiking.”