Have students at the University of Alabama become part of the nationwide trend of partying with Black Out Rage Gallons (BORGs)?

Inside Higher Ed‘s Johanna Alonso reported that:

The latest college drinking trend is as simple as it is potent: equal parts water and liquor, combined with some sort of sugary flavoring. And while some see the beverage as just another way to get drunk quickly, others consider the fad a safer alternative to drinking games of yore, such as Slap the Bag or Edward Fortyhands.

Called a borg—short for “blackout rage gallon”—the beverages have been around since at least early 2020, when the first recipes for the concoction were posted on the video-sharing app TikTok. But borgs have garnered increased attention in recent months as more and more TikTokers, often college students, post videos of themselves making or drinking them.

Alonzo wrote that Penn State‘s Ashley Linden-Carmichael warned against the beverage. She retweeted Inside Higher Ed‘s post:

Carmichael was quoted in the Inside Higher Ed story:

“If someone is having 16 drinks in one sitting, even if it’s mixed with water, that still counts as high-intensity or extreme drinking.”

She noted that binge drinking is defined for men as having five or more drinks in a sitting, and, for women, four or more.

WHIO TV/7 reported that in Dayton, Ohio, there have been “BORG-themed events.” The television station reported that “Doctors at Miami Valley Hospital have not had any BORG patients yet, but if the drinking trend continues, they will not be surprised when students start showing up at the emergency room.”

NBC News‘ Morgan Sung reported that the BORG jugs are often given “punny names” such as “Soulja Borg” and “Our Borg and Savior.”

Writing for the University of Texas at Austin‘s Daily Texan, Aaron Sullivan quoted a student who believed that BORGs would allow her better to pace herself while drinking.

Boston.com‘s Eli Curwin wrote:

For college students across the country, the days of Jungle Juice and Faderade are over. Now, many party-goers are lugging around a new type of drink: borgs. And doctors are worried.

“In general, when a patient comes to the emergency department because of binge drinking, its because they are no longer able to function.” Dr. Gus Colangelo, an Emergency Medicine physician at Tufts Medical Center, told Boston.com. “And this is not uncommon with borgs, because people have this perception … that the additional contents of the borg are somehow going to protect them from the toxic effects of the alcohol.”

Sightings of BORGs in T-Town haven’t been reported by any media outlets as yet. The Borg in Star Trek proclaimed that “Resistance is futile.” Will partying students on campus or at the farm be able to resist the BORG?