Matt's suggestion about the Borg Baby I'd pretty spot on. On my college campus I've seen people utilizing the smaller 1/2 gallon bottles for their Borgs instead of the traditional full gallon. Additionally I highly doubt many people utilize the full bottle of vodka for their Borgs, usually it's 1/4 a gallon vodka with 3/4 water. Additionally, I have never seen anyone use an ENTIRE bottle of Mio for their Borgs. That's wayyy too expensive for us college students to be wasting like that.
@Cheeseey Gamer I guess I'm not "normal" but I still see the whole thing as an extra cost. I attended a major state university for 3 semesters and never drank alcoholic beverages (except at a small gathering on my 21st birthday). I ended up leaving that school after the 3 semesters but after several years break, I'm at a much smaller public 4-year college and doing very well.
Yeah we usually strugle buying a bottle of cacique (alcohol cheaper than vodka common in Costa Rica) for like 7 people, now imagine buying a bottle of vodka for each one...
@Bob when ur a broke college student the point is to get as drunk as possible for as cheap as possible. While Vodka can cost more than other drinks, by volume it gets u drunk more and faster so thats not getting cut out. Water is essential since its to prevent the hangover. However a whole bottle of mio is an additional cost depending on how much you use. While it's pretty cheap, spending an additional 3 bucks eveytime might not be doable when ur penny pinching for the vodka already.
honestly just using a non-caffinated drink mix and a smaller container would fix this entirely. im not exactly a partygoer but i can see the good intent behind it to keep yourself safe
I will say that the spiked drink scene is definitely being handled the best it can be I was once escorted out of a party just for moving someones drink to get to my drink that was behind it alot of people are taking it seriously and I completely understood and yes i pled my case and was told it was just a precaution and I am 100% for this at any function but i will definitely be asking people to move their drinks instead of me just doing it from now on
Unis student here who also works in a bar: I have had an entire bottle of vodka in one night before (with mixers, I'm not that stupid). Here are my drinking tips to stay safe 1- if you are at a party, never drink when you're alone. At least one person in your group HAS to stay sober. Make it fair by rotating 2- my personal recommendation is to only get drinks in bottles, like VK, WKD, Rekordilig, Budweiser etc. Don't get mixed drinks or drinks from taps (in my experience they are also cheaper) 3- if your drink is unattended for even a SECOND, that is no longer your drink. Abandon it or even better, dump it to prevent others from drinking a potentially spiked drink. 5- If five people enter the party, five people are leaving. If your friend is drunk, do not let them go to someone else's place for a hook up. Especially if that other person is sober. 6- if you don't see the drink being poured, do not drink it. If you feel uncomfortable with someone who bought you a drink, or you just don't want it, put it down discreetly or accidentally spill it. DO NOT do anything you are uncomfortable doing. Practice saying no. No does not stop predators sadly, but it can get someone else's attention 7- ALWAYS MAKE A SCENE if you feel unsafe. Make as much noise as you can, get all eyes on you if possible. It does not matter if you are embarrassing yourself. Your safety is more important. 8- (this one is just for convenience and can be more fun with the right people) drink at home with friends. Make your own foul cocktails in the safety of your own home. Worst case scenario, you throw up in your bathroom sink and have to spend an hour cleaning it the next morning. Have fun and stay safe!!!
I never went drinking at bars in college; I couldn't afford it. My roommates and I would just have people over. Also, if I can make it to the bathrrom sink, I can make it to the toilet. If I can't make it to the bathroom, well that is unfortunate.
@TheComposerChangingGames my thoughts exactly. A much safer way to get smashed in college: Step 1: turn on your switch Step 2: connect four pro controllers Step 3: final destination no items ;)
I was thinking that too! You could literally have koolaid in that and no one would know. I would have loved to have that, helping me feel safer and more comfortable.
My older brother actually would take a non alcoholic borg to parties so he wouldn’t have to worry about the things you said in the second half of the video. In reality it would just be kook-aid most of the time
I was just that the best part of a Borg is when you don't feel like drinking you can just make a jug of koolaid and no one will know the difference, so they won't pester you about drinking or try to make you a drink or anything and you can stay safe and sober without having to worry
I don't drink, but this sounds like it has the potential to be the best or worst idea depending on the individual making it. More water, less alcohol, no caffeine, add some flavor and/or hydration enhancers, then pace yourself, and you might have a recipe for a good time. I still wouldn't drink it, but I get it. With the right tweaks, I approve.
I don't drink very much myself. And when I do it's at home. But if I do these Borg things odds are it would have zero alcohol in them. Like you said it has great potential for good, but also for bad as well depending on the individual 🤷♀.
That perspective of having a Borg for safety is really great, and not something I would have thought of. Because otherwise, it's essentially the simplified gen z version of hunch punch. Everyone had their own recipe, so you had no idea what you were actually drinking-just that it would give you the result you wanted 😂😂
LOL legit if this was a thing when I was 21 I would definitely make it at home without alcohol before going to my friends or a party. I hated being pressured to drink and this would have saved me from all that nonsense.
I never went to any of my dorm's parties 'cuz I hate not just the taste but also the smell of alcohol... Like I even avoided my roommates' house parties & just "conveniently" made plans with my friends to "go out" (read: meet at someone else & play either dnd or cards xD)
Love the addressing of the whole subject; it’s good that you’re acknowledging how bad the drinking culture is in younger people, and you’re just keeping them informed. Also, a note from me(someone who’s native to the Western MA area), it’s actually pronounced Am-merst not Am-herst lol
Finding the silver-lining in all things bad is my favorite thing about the Theory channels. Pairing water intoxication with Caffeine overdose and excess amount of liquor BUT at least you know what's in it and can keep you relatively safe during the parts of the night that you can recollect.
Lol you aren't getting water intoxication with just a half gallon of water spread over a couple hours while you're drinking alcohol. You also aren't gonna overdose on caffeine, a typical person needs to ingest like 3000 mg before that happens. You just shouldn't generally mix caffeine with alcohol.
Thank you Matt from the bottom of my heart and soul for talking about how often people are getting their drinks spiked. More people need to be talking about how bad it's getting and how life altering it can be. Seriously thank you
To be fair I would have liked that back in the day when i was in uni. The idea of getting a fairly good mix of alcohol and water at the same time means I wouldn't have to remember to drink a glass of water after every drink. That really helps with hangovers. I wouldn't have drunk an entire bottle at one party, because its a bottle of vodka. I'd also skip the caffeine additives. I found out long ago that those mix badly. The customizability appeals to me. Not more "oh if i bring good liquor to this party everyone is gonna drink it, so i may as well bring the same craptastick drink everyone else got because they are broke".
When I was in college my friends and I made your borg with caffeine-free kool aid because a very nice nurse on campus had told us the dangers of caffeine with alcohol I’m very happy that we were told this before something bad happened
I didn't drink at all at uni (still don't) and if I'd cared about what people thought about that (I didn't) then this would have been a great option. I did love mixing mocktails. One of my favourites was creme de menthe syrup, lemon juice, and sprite. I drank it out of an obnoxiously huge plastic martini glass. Ah, memories. 😂
I was surprised by the amount of vodka in the recipe. Back when I was in college, we were buying one bottle par attendant. And we were drinking other alcohol beverages on top of that. Then I remembered, it was one bottle for the whole night, one bottle for 5-8h of drinking. We were marathoning our nights of alcoholic consumption.
I like the idea behind the borg; the control over your drink. I feel like once people understand just how many drinks they're putting in, they'll be able to make a smarter decision.
I always knew since I was a little kid that I would bring my own unmarked apple juice bottle to parties. It's safe, it's fun, and it allows me to be the sober friend to take my wasted friends home haha
As a college student who lives in an area with tons of fraternities, I’ve heard so many people talk about this. One of my friends said that if you didn’t make the Borg it will send you to the morgue, but if you bring your own you’re more likely to make it home.
It's a good way to remember it. Often rhymes are easy ways to remember things plus this one elicits an image in your head that clearly explains the safety in it of itself.
So solely focusing on the spiked drinks aspect for a moment: I really want there to be a lockable water bottle. Like, have a code you need to put in on the lid or something that only you know to make sure your water (or whatever you choose to put in your cup) doesn’t get spiked. If there is a high quality cup like this out there somewhere, I haven’t found it yet. If anyone knows of one, please share the word! Heck, even a small key to use that you can keep in your pocket would suffice if it didn’t make the bottle unusable (from the size of the lock lol)
Still, you (and it) should be among a trusted group of friends. You can only put so much security into something before it either becomes too cumbersome to use or wraps back around to being too easy to open. If one of your friends is either learning about or is highly interested in security (cybersecurity or locksmithing), at least you'd be rest assured that they're on *your* side.
The moment I realized that this drink had caffeine and alcohol in it I instantly thought about the Four Loko situation, and knew the dangers of it already. And was just silently screaming to the heavens, asking why anybody would do that.
Mat thanks for covering this topic from such an objective point of view! I am personally a huge fan of the borg and it’s a big craze at my college (JMU) rn. The main reason we do it is because 1) it’s cheap 2) it’s an easy way to keep all your drinks in one place for the day without having to carry around a whole fifth cops can call out from a mile away or a pack of drinks where half of them are stolen and 3) it’s a conversation starter (people name their borgs crazy things and then talk to others about it). All that being said you’re entirely right about all the facts and people should drink in moderation! I groaned when I saw this pop up in my feed but thank you for a great video as always!
I remember in my early 20s we bring a bottle of Vodak and a bottle of soft drink. Then mix it in a cup. The amount vodak to soft drink increased throughout the night. This was common in Australia as alcohol so expensive especially pre-mixed.
I’m a third year university student and have never heard of “a borg” before until clicking this video 😂 I only commute to my campus for classes and don’t drink for a mix of personal belief and medical reasons so I guess it makes sense lol. I’ve also never been to parties because ew socializing 😂😂😂 I’ll take my coffee fix, just of course at responsible levels of caffeine lol. Please stay safe everyone!
Aaaaah I remember college days. The non drinkers and less experienced drinkers loved my colorful ‘drinks’. Pink lemonade with some fruit and herbs. Made it look like a cocktail but no alcohol. Ever since been making more ‘mock tail’ recipes. I saw borgs at college and that what started me making fake but fancy looking drinks.
I ran into a friend from school a few years back who told me about going to a party with his younger sister. At one point I guess she decided she didn't feel like her drink so he took it. He blacked out and woke up with a broken leg. The entire video had important information but I'm especially happy that you brought up keeping other people's hands out of your drinks.
As a college student who is in a fraternity, Borgs are big part of the culture, I’ve never seen anyone go to the hospital at my school, (not saying it never happens) but at least everyone I know is pretty careful and drinks the Borg through a long period of time that way to avoid just straight up taking it all in an hour or 2, which I did my first time in accident and didn’t end up in the hospital. (Granted I was throwing up😭 but it was only a bit and I was fine the rest of the day, obviously I didn’t drink further). I think the Borg can be okay if consumed over a longer period of time
1:14:22 *Can we just take a moment to appreciate how much hours and passion she placed in the vids?* *It is unbelievable, and Iw think they justify a lot more than that.*
Sounds like the key is to use a non-caffeinated flavoring. Also sounds like Buena Vista Cafe has a problem with the drink they invented many years ago, the Irish coffee: very strong coffee, sugar, irish whiskey, and cream. Sooooo yummy, I'm not giving it up, no matter what Matt Pat says.
My roommates and I made these just this past weekend, we did it because taking shots by itself is hard and not fun so we did it for the taste. We used generic water enhancers that have no sugar or caffeine and because we were in a controlled environment, we poured out our borgs into glasses and paced ourselves that way. I think this way is much more efficient than a traditional borg.
I'm actually a really big fan of the baby borg idea. You definitely should not have a full one in your hands while under the influence of alcohol, much less caffeine if you're crazy and want to do that, however having a set amount for you to drink in advance and easily be able to see where you are along that line is great. If someone is wild enough to want to do caffeine and alcohol, having a set amount of each that's specifically measured out is exactly what you need. Ironically, the baby borg can be used as a tool of moderation while the full borg just seems like the complete opposite. It would be really interesting to see how this could evolve.
It’s common at my school for a group of friends to share a borg, so it’s not just one person tackling it. Most people also use non-caffeinated flavoring.
Ya know, I used to think that mixing caffeine and alcohol was just like giving yourself a bit of a boost to keep going on. Sure, I've heard you shouldn't mix the two, uppers and downers, but I didn't see much of an issue with it. After all, I've had plenty of jagerbombs and other shots that have Monster or Red Bull as the mixer. Perhaps I won't do that so much now. (Before you guys think I'm some kinda alcoholic, I don't drink often but do enjoy doing so every now and again.)
The Mexican equivalent would be "Agua Loca" (crazy water). You take a 5-gallon water jug and fill about 3/4 of it, add the flavoring powder of your preference and complete with the cheapest alcohol you find (usually "Tonayan" which is made of sugar cane and similar to tequila, has 24% of alcohol and the bottle of 960 ml or 32.4 oz cost around 2-3 USD). A common drink at student parties and an easy way to get yourself drunk fast with little money.
Being in the UK, and as a teen, we regularly brought entire bottles of vodka with us which were absolutely gone by the end of the night. Borg seems to be a reskin of whatever random stuff we threw together hahaha
Nah, adults are being so dramatic. Just bc College kids have a name for it, doesn’t mean it’s anything new. It’s literally just Jungle Juice, or whatever you called it growing up. Everyone has done it, the only difference is college students carry it around in a gallon jug while most people just poured it in a cup back in the day. It’s actually better for hangovers too since there’s no sugar in the drink, it’s just water, vodka, and flavoring.
I'm too old (30) to be in on this BORG stuff but until now, my little exposure to it hadn't had me aware of the caffeine being added. I actually kinda liked the idea of the BORG with those last few reasons you were bringing up. I knew that the 'standard' was a 26 (I think that's canadian for a 5th?) as far as alcohol went, but I also knew it was something that could easily adjusted. Obviously the caps on/it being your own personal drink keeps it a bit more safe from being spiked. And then, I remember always being the guy to clean up after parties... and I'd be walking around with like 3 bags of solo cups and cans and bottles completely full. All in all, I wish there was a way to drop the perceived need for heavy drinking in university party culture but this is probably my favourite iteration of it I've seen.
As a college student myself who actually made a borg this weekend, there are a couple of things that MatPat could have done that could have presented the topic without coming across so harsh at times. Big thing is the idea that it’s always 17 shots going in. Never had one with that much, usually less. The idea of a borg is for it not to be over done with alcohol so that you actually enjoy the taste of it. Ten is a number me and my friends mostly settle on. While I know that’s a still lot, it is a bit better. Second is the Mio angle. Most of the borgs at my school, if not all, use non-caffeinated Mio or water sweeteners to avoid the caffeine that we know is dangerous. This just leads to better results all around and makes it less dangerous. Mat even mentioned the Kool Aid flavoring and never brought it back up again. Third is that borgs typically aren’t meant to be consumed in an hour or two. They are meant for over the course of a day or long night that spans multiple hours, meaning the concentrated effects aren’t as strong as one would think. It’s just to have something good to drink on you while having a fun time. And lastly the water in there makes hangovers after borging much more manageable. Might just be me but it seems to work well for others as well. Understand how serious overconsumption of both alcohol and caffeine can be and I am totally on MatPat’s side about that, just seems like some of the video came off a bit harsh as opposed to the reality of what boring actually is. Love seeing something on FoodTheory that I actually have some experience with and can comment on.
My friend would make pineapple hunch punch. I don’t even think it had pineapple in it. It was meant to be drank slowly during the whole party. It had every type of alcohol he could find lol.
the difference between drinking all 17 shots in under an hour, and drinking half the gallon for the time socializing and then heading back to the dorm not finishing it because most people don't finish an entire gallon of anything that fast. mat acting like gen z downing the entire gallon in a single sitting lmao
So true. It felt like he wasn’t really presenting the entire reality of it. Firstly, let’s be real, most students are too broke to afford an entire vodka bottle every time they go out. Most ppl are def not putting that much in their Borgs. And personally, no one Ik ever uses caffeinated sweeteners bc, as he even said in the video, it can make u feel less drunk than u actually are, when the point is that ppl want to feel drunk. The pros of borgs definitely outweigh the cons, especially if ur making one smartly
It's good, then, that the majority of BORG instances are not the abuse of it. A swig from a water jug, not downing a barrel for a dare. It could possibly relate to M. Patrick being a father of a small child now, and that mindset transplanting itself over to us the audience. Side bar. I am a college kid myself and have been a teetotaler ever since I entered during the brunt of the _Major Global Event_ .
I think stuff like this is what we need more of, not the borg, but this type of video. The type of video meant to inform people of the dangers & risk of something, but also sympathize for those making the mistakes & possibly seeing the benefits of it. And, entertainment plus education is always good
I think that Borg has potential to be a good good thing depending on how it's made. if it's made by someone irresponsible then its an accident waiting to happen, but if it's someone who knows what they are doing it could be a enjoyable yet safer way to drink!
Does alcohol affect neurodivergent ppl differently? I just got to the part about the dopamine and gaba stuff and I've found that not to be my experience. Honestly, Ive also always been curious and would love to see an episode on if we can determine "what kind of drunk you'll be." Some people are happy, fun, weepy, angry, violent drunks and I'd love to know if there's a reason behind which one you end up being. Like if ppl are genetically predisposed or something.
Studies have shown that most people who think they've been spiked actually just drank too much. So the borg is probably not that helpful in preventing "spiked" drinks.
Hey MatPat and team, I’ve got a theory that I’m interested to see you guys cover: if you had a limited supply of water, would it be better to consume it like you normally would and be hydrated for a short time, or to ration it out so much that you dehydrate yourself?
I’m a lightweight so whenever I made these back in the day I never put alcohol and if I did it was very unnoticeable. It helped me fit in and I stayed safe. 😅
As an ex soroity girl, omg does this video hit close to home. My sorority had a special punch we made for parties that were 2 gallons of lemonade and 3 bottles of alcohol. I found this out after I had one cup of it and had to stop drinking the rest of the party and carbo-load in the corner so I didn't get hungover the next day. Although i will say I've had sisters who would make a borg and share it with each other. With four sisters drinking from the same gallon, everyone was still ok because they were all there when making it so they all new what was in it, but they also all stuck close together to keep the drink and each other safe. The Borg is the best worst idea, especially if you share it with close friends and people you trust. And also just got to say drugging is such a big problem when drinking. Luckily, I'm on a small campus, and I've really only heard one big story when a frat spiked all their punch, but it was also one of the reasons I never went out, much. I was too paranoid all the time and worried I'd be next. Thanks, MatPat, for keeping everybody safe!
Seriously thank you for talking about things like spiked drinks and the like. Not a lot of youtubers in the genra tend not to bring it up, let alone bring stats into things. As someone who had to be equipped to handle these situations from an age younger than I probably should have, whenever I go out to social settings and end up people watching, I see so many red flags, and have even caught (and stopped) situations happening. So many people are reckless with things like this and it's something I didn't expect to be brought up. Again, thank you so very much for talking about this.
@Micia Rokiri I used to have a group I'd get out with. We'd watch over each other, until we lost one of the members. I still go out and I don't drink and know what to do to keep myself safe, but so many people are so trusting. I have protected my friends with my life. That shouldn't end cause I don't know someone, but I've seen other people watch and do nothing. People need to protect others, I'd never not.
It's amazing how much you see when people watching. Thanks for stepping in. A lot of people will see it but either be too far gone themselves to process it, or they don't want to "rock the boat" and keep silent.
I wish everyone had my psychology teacher who taught my class to NEVER MIX UPPERS AND DOWNERS. Thanks Ms. Wagner! But on another note, I feel like Four Loko didn't necessarily deserve to be sued seeing from the video that most of the cases were UNDERAGE kids drinking it. Feel like that's on them and the person who sold it to them. Same thing for the people who were of age but had issues after it. Pretty positive for those cases are just people who drank too much, Same thing would happen if you drank normal alcohol every. Single. Day.
I think it should also be acknowledged that the borg, with a high amount of water and sometimes electrolytes, helps provide hydration without people needing to put too much focus on it
I had friends who went to a party with students from a famous engineer school of my town. they had created their own version of the "borg" but instead called it "the blackout goo". It was a mix of the highest % of alcohol they could find (sometime rumored to be rubbing alcohol) and Nestea powder. They basicallly found out that in higher concentration, the powder hid the taste of alcohol, but still maintained its property. My friends decribed the experience as the weirdest party ever as people would "fall" and just be blackout drunk everywhere.
Has this generation never heard of flasks? They can hold like 5 shots. You are good with that. But sure, Borg, drink your heart out. Good video, MatPat. Very informative. Made me realize just how bad my college peers are probably doing
I am a freshman in college. Party’s are most certainly not my thing so I had no idea what a borg was until I walked into my room while my roommate was gathering the ingredients to make one. I was just like why do you have mio and vodka.
In Brazil, college students do something similar, but it's called Gummy. Is usually water, vodka and a cheap pownder juice (kinda like kool aid). But people make a big bucket to share with the whole party. Once my friend saw someone mixing it with his whole arm. So... not very sanitary😅
Bar the insane levels of caffeine this seems pretty tame to me as a Brit. We had jungle juice and wanna be mixologists at parties at Uni, and to go through a whole litre of spirit plus beers plus maybe whatever else was standard. Still is 10 years later. Honestly My next party I might give it a try sans caffeine (or maybe like a third of that, 6 cans of Red Bull in a night is a lot but not too uncommon at 464.4mg so maybe like 2 or 300mg to keep the buzz aspect) because as you said there's no way I could lose my drink. Although the safety aspects are null and void as we only have people we know round.
Here in the UK we have something called "Dragon Soop" and it sounds a lot like a four loko was. Packed with alcohol and caffeine. Tasted absolutely rancid. I have been drinking too much for ages and it genuinely made me feel worse than drinking like half a bottle of vodka in one night lol.
My college campus is known for it's parties and as well, its spiked drinks. It's honestly scary and makes me worry for my friends who do drink and who do party
I kept wondering why you were putting so much emphasis on the amount of alcohol or caffeine in the jug, because it literally didn't even occur to me that someone would be making this with the intention to drink the entire thing on their own.
i was a lil worried when u sold the channel but when u explained and showed us nothing would change i felt better, plz never stop what u do i would like to see grandpa pat lol you guys have helped me threw a lot and if anybody in the theorist family sees this thank you to
@Hideki Shinichi Sadly I agree. Now tkor is just a KZclip shorts channel. With a couple lifeless videos on between. But I used to like Nate and Callie for the most part. But after grant left as the host it lost some of it's pop. But like you said Grants family has someone in their ear telling them that Nate and the other hosts are making too much and they could just can all the talent and they kept the one boring girl and they are just not good. But all that matters financially is that they can keep low overhead and lower quality but it doesn't matter because they now make cheaper vids and make less money with a worse product. Btw Nate is still going he has a channel called "Nate from the internet. Pretty interesting. But eventually this channel will end up watered down. Every creator that has built up a huge KZclip empire eventually wants to be less involved and spend more time with family and maybe doing another project.
The example with tkor is best. First we had grant. Then he left to run things behind the scene and it turned into a meh channel. Still ok but nothing as it was before. Then grant passed, company got different management, they got rid of the usual hosts and changed it to 5 min craft esque garbage. Yet they still are up and running. This is going to turn that way eventually or the channels are going to die while trying. Matpat leaving or being essentialy sacked would mean nothing
@Pulkatz sorry, one time I said lifes instead of lives and someone replied seriously saying I was in a cult of ignorance. Spelling suggestions just can easily lead to the reply thread being poisoned. Again really sorry that I replied so meanly, have a great day!
@Micheal Persicko that's what they did on The King of Random channel. Canned the good hosts because they were there from beginning and we're making a percentage of channel. and now the channel is garbage
My best friend would bring a bottle of vodka and drink the whole thing every time he came over. I never really thought about how bad that was until later in life. Luckily he has gotten away from that life style.
There's also a lot more non caffeinated mio flavors than caffeinated ones. So not only can you remove the risk that caffeine brings, but have a lot more flavor options.
I used to watch my mom drink an entire 5th straight 3 times a day and once in the middle of the night! She’s been sober now for 4 1/2 years now after she almost died like 3-4 times and had us taken away it crazy how bad drinking is. She got us back and I’m 18 now still ing having to live with my mother to help her out and the fact that I live in not cal. Where there isn’t much work and everything is still priced like the rest of cali…
When you consider that one BORG would be probably shared among multiple people it actually begins to make a great deal of sense. One handle is 17 shots, divided among 3 people is around 5.6 shots per person. This is still not perfectly safe, (no alcohol is safe) but assuming that you drink that over the course of around two hours and that is a reasonable amount of alcohol. You will not throw up or be more at risk than anyone else (just maybe find a caffeine-free flavoring method)
Mat pat literally showed an option without caffeine near the start of the episode, but just decided to talk about the caffeinated version for some reason
Even if you don’t share it, the BORG is more a product of day drinking culture. So even a person drinking one alone would usually happen over the course of 6+ hours on a casual drinking day like tailgating or barbecuing
from memory, the caffeine and alcohol law is why Jagerbombs are in special glasses as in theory its being served unmixed and mixes as you drink it so it gets around the legal loophole
I could see the benefits making up a large quantity of favored cocktail for storage or sharing, but not single night single person consumption. Would have to be shelf stable, though; my chocolate caramel milk cocktail would not do well long term. You could even get some cheap vodka and steep flavoring into it for your own flavored alcohol. The personal bottle to prevent to drugging is brilliant though. You could get a cute (durable) bottle and make cute custom labels for it. Somewhere, I think I have bottle labels that say "mage tears" and I love the apothecary chic look. Just... just drink responsibly and be safe.
From what I've read, most borgs are made from 1/2 to 1/3 vodka or liqueur and the rest is juice or sports drink. It's better than drinking straight liqueur all night and if you keep your borg on you at all times, it prevents people from dropping roofies into your drink.
Gringos finally created their own version of sucão, very popular in collages here in Brazil, my favorite version is 1 part vodka for 2 parts lime soda (the cheapest one you can find) and them a couple packets of some random lime flavored store brand cool aid knockoff, perfect for drinking games
Maybe a nasty trend indeed, especially the period in which it is taken. But binge drinking isn’t anything uncommon here in Europe either. People start drinking earlier 16 at home parties and 18 legally, and usually slows down after 35 unless your are an outlier. I drank 15-20 glasses of alcohol and also water in between in some occasion but that’s on a whole night going out (5-6h).
Those stats on spiked drinks are interesting. I think I drank a spiked drink that was intended for someone else when I was in university. I have very little recollection of much past the first drink and spent days throwing up and shivering after. The area I was living was rife with drugs and you could pretty much get anything if you knew someone or looked hard enough.
@Alejandro Quesada Idk kind of sounds like you’ve never experienced or known anyone who’s experienced being drugged and therefore think it’s a non-issue. It might be hard to believe, but this stuff does actually happen and pretty often.
@Alejandro Quesada and I'll reiterate. We can't buy benzodiazipines over the counter in the UK so that's a pretty long winded process to go through and not understand how you felt so ill.
At first I assumed this was a thing to share, now I’m concerned. Another thought, have you ever thought of covering “battery acid” it’s monster energy mixed with vodka i believe. It’s pretty popular with teenagers
I wonder how drinks like Irish coffees fit in this when discussing mixing caffeine and alcohol especially since bars and other places selling alcohol often have coffee alcoholic drinks?
Yea, pretty much immediately my reaction to this was "Ok so, just drink less of it and you're fine". 1/2 gallon jugs (with half the vodka) and non-caff flavors should effectively solve the issue. Just make two baby borgs at a time and save the second for another night. Now getting party going college students to actually do that... is the difficult part.
If you want the benefits he talks about at the end without the borg of it all, I often put a mid strength mix drink into a 40ish oz reusable and closing water bottle and that usually puts me in a good spot for a whole night when I drink it slowly over a few hours. Also, rule of thumb, don’t accept a bottle or can that isn’t sealed, there isn’t really a reason for anyone to give you an open one unless you ask them to open it for you.
Another thing you didn't mention in the video, you technically don't need to drink it all in one sitting... or day... or week. You don't even need to add the caffeine that makes it extra dangerous. It might've started as alcoholic, but it can basically be whatever you want. As someone who doesn't drink (tried once and the buzz just reminded me of NyQuil) a juice-filled, non-alcoholic variant isn't something I'd be against (and honestly, my family's been doing a kool-aid version for a couple decades anyway. more surprised this is fairly new)
I think in smaller measured quantities, the borg is a great low cost idea at college party settings. Being drugged at parties is a huge issue so I hope some college students use the borg wisely and not to get themselves so drunk they get hospitalized. Maybe rename the smaller borg to something else
The thing I don’t get is why so many people drink alcohol, there are other options so why does everyone sound like they’re saying that alcohol is a required drink once you turn old enough.
The best way to drink and have a good time without a huge risk of overdoing it is to just drink light beer. It's usually at around 4 percent abv, so you have to drink a ton to get wasted. It's also a less dehydrating option, so you're less likely to get a real nasty hangover. Much better option than a borg in my opinion.
I just want to note, in Mexico we do this, since I have memories of drinking, this is basically a recepie for "aguas locas" or "crazy waters" Wich is a cheep and simple way of getting drunk and that's it
Great video; however, as someone who goes to a party school I will say that a lot of Borg’s don’t use caffeinated flavoring which makes them slightly safer. I’ve borged before but made sure to use non-caffeinated flavoring.
This was starting to sound like a really bad idea being pushed by FT right up until you said (A) since you made it yourself and you keep it capped, you can make sure nothing is added to it and (B) you can dictate what's in the jug. Okay, I could see that. I recall college time and while I didn't go to frat parties I did attend one serious business party with college students. Of the five of us, I was the only teetotaler in the group and got ragged on about it by EVERYONE, including our two professors who brought us and the businessmen we were visiting. Then we had the three that drank and drank until one actually got sick in the host's bathroom--not a good sight for the actual adults in the party. And then we had the frat boy. He was smart--he graciously accepted a beer from the host but later my prof said he noticed frat boy NEVER took a swig, he just held it all night like he was consuming. Which brings me back to (B) up above: want to go to a college party but don't want to drink and don't want to be harassed about not drinking? Bring a jug of "BORG" that's nothing but Kool-Aid.
i think the trick to this would be to measure and draw lines at intervals of one standard drink down the jug. even if its not 100% accurate, it gives you something to measure against and keep you conscious of how much youve actually drank.
I honestly love the safety aspect of the borg to prevent spiking anyones drink. I would totally just make an orange baby borg, which would just be the equivalent of a screwdriver (oj+vodka) and skip all the caffine
from what I have heard on the topic, one of the LARGEST reasons why people like it so much is due to the high water content which greatly reduces hangover symptoms
Matt honestly does offer the best solution here - just make the bottle smaller. Minimize the risks by reducing the amount of dangerous chemicals being imbibed, and you keep all of the safety features the borg already has!
It’s also a more reasonable serving size and a lot easier to carry around like gallons of a drink are heavy, I wouldn’t want to carry that all around in a party
When inwas in college my ex and I used to make "show juice" which was Rum, Mio, and Water in a Gatorade bottle so it was discrete. We used to get blackout drunk off it every Tuesday lol It was a bad good idea but at the time it seemed genius!
I think a “safer” borg would use fruit juice (or a mixer syrup used for cocktails), flavored water (without caffeine), and much less alcohol to water ratio. I know it’s about getting wasted for cheap but maybe this would be a better and more fun solution. Like a jug of Hippie Juice (one of my favorite cocktails)
I am willing to believe those spiked drinks numbers, but they don't really pass the smell test for me. I had a social life in college that was slightly less than average. I was part of a fairly large but close knit friend group. I had some other friends and went to maybe half a dozen parties that extended meaningfully beyond my friend group. None of my close friends have experienced it, and I'm only aware of a handful of my acquaintances who have experienced it. I'm from the south. If we find out that someone SA'ed our daughter or girlfriend or best friend, the perpetrator is not going to be long for this world. If this kind of drug stuff was so rampant, I'd expect a lot more revenge murders.
We dipped cups in a cooler of “jungle juice” at frat and house parties. And drank from the beer pong cups. 😔 So lucky nothing sketchy never happened to me or my friends..
Matpat is great at keeping his viewers safe and entertained while telling dad jokes in the process
Bro your comment got the same amount of likes as comments 🤯
(They are both at 3.8k rn)
@The SaddestDude Yup Tiktok has done worse but this......this is extremely horrible and deadly
When he said star trek wasn't cool it made me feel unsafe
Fax
Matt's suggestion about the Borg Baby I'd pretty spot on. On my college campus I've seen people utilizing the smaller 1/2 gallon bottles for their Borgs instead of the traditional full gallon. Additionally I highly doubt many people utilize the full bottle of vodka for their Borgs, usually it's 1/4 a gallon vodka with 3/4 water. Additionally, I have never seen anyone use an ENTIRE bottle of Mio for their Borgs. That's wayyy too expensive for us college students to be wasting like that.
@Cheeseey Gamer I guess I'm not "normal" but I still see the whole thing as an extra cost. I attended a major state university for 3 semesters and never drank alcoholic beverages (except at a small gathering on my 21st birthday). I ended up leaving that school after the 3 semesters but after several years break, I'm at a much smaller public 4-year college and doing very well.
Yeah we usually strugle buying a bottle of cacique (alcohol cheaper than vodka common in Costa Rica) for like 7 people, now imagine buying a bottle of vodka for each one...
@Bob when ur a broke college student the point is to get as drunk as possible for as cheap as possible. While Vodka can cost more than other drinks, by volume it gets u drunk more and faster so thats not getting cut out. Water is essential since its to prevent the hangover. However a whole bottle of mio is an additional cost depending on how much you use. While it's pretty cheap, spending an additional 3 bucks eveytime might not be doable when ur penny pinching for the vodka already.
@Bob nerd 🤓🤓🤓
honestly just using a non-caffinated drink mix and a smaller container would fix this entirely. im not exactly a partygoer but i can see the good intent behind it to keep yourself safe
I legit cannot drink alcohol without a SHITLOAD of caffeine with it. Something is wrong with me.
yeah, most borgs i’ve seen online had liquid iv or regular mio or just koolaid in them instead of the caffinated stuff
@Max Petersen yeah a lot of the hangover symptoms come from dehydration so having a mix like this with a ton of water is a p good choice
I agree, also I feel like he missed the point that people are also staying hydrated with all the water which is actually pretty responsible.
I will say that the spiked drink scene is definitely being handled the best it can be I was once escorted out of a party just for moving someones drink to get to my drink that was behind it alot of people are taking it seriously and I completely understood and yes i pled my case and was told it was just a precaution and I am 100% for this at any function but i will definitely be asking people to move their drinks instead of me just doing it from now on
Unis student here who also works in a bar:
I have had an entire bottle of vodka in one night before (with mixers, I'm not that stupid). Here are my drinking tips to stay safe
1- if you are at a party, never drink when you're alone. At least one person in your group HAS to stay sober. Make it fair by rotating
2- my personal recommendation is to only get drinks in bottles, like VK, WKD, Rekordilig, Budweiser etc. Don't get mixed drinks or drinks from taps (in my experience they are also cheaper)
3- if your drink is unattended for even a SECOND, that is no longer your drink. Abandon it or even better, dump it to prevent others from drinking a potentially spiked drink.
5- If five people enter the party, five people are leaving. If your friend is drunk, do not let them go to someone else's place for a hook up. Especially if that other person is sober.
6- if you don't see the drink being poured, do not drink it. If you feel uncomfortable with someone who bought you a drink, or you just don't want it, put it down discreetly or accidentally spill it. DO NOT do anything you are uncomfortable doing. Practice saying no. No does not stop predators sadly, but it can get someone else's attention
7- ALWAYS MAKE A SCENE if you feel unsafe. Make as much noise as you can, get all eyes on you if possible. It does not matter if you are embarrassing yourself. Your safety is more important.
8- (this one is just for convenience and can be more fun with the right people) drink at home with friends. Make your own foul cocktails in the safety of your own home. Worst case scenario, you throw up in your bathroom sink and have to spend an hour cleaning it the next morning.
Have fun and stay safe!!!
"im not that stupid" preceded by "i've had an entire bottle of vodka in one night" is very very funny
I never went drinking at bars in college; I couldn't afford it. My roommates and I would just have people over. Also, if I can make it to the bathrrom sink, I can make it to the toilet. If I can't make it to the bathroom, well that is unfortunate.
@Jeff Hilton 100%
@TheComposerChangingGames my thoughts exactly.
A much safer way to get smashed in college:
Step 1: turn on your switch
Step 2: connect four pro controllers
Step 3: final destination no items ;)
I was thinking that too! You could literally have koolaid in that and no one would know. I would have loved to have that, helping me feel safer and more comfortable.
you'll never be done covering stupid tik tok trends MatPat
As long as TikTok is a thing, this series will never stop like ever I could come up with a random stupid trend right now
@Alex Rudolph its just another form of the same drink everyone’s made in college under one name or another
internet trends in general. people seem to forget things like the cinnamon challenge and the salt + ice challenge
True! It's like a turn key op. They will continue to feed MatPat
It's slowly becoming Food Theory's own FNaF.
My older brother actually would take a non alcoholic borg to parties so he wouldn’t have to worry about the things you said in the second half of the video. In reality it would just be kook-aid most of the time
I was just that the best part of a Borg is when you don't feel like drinking you can just make a jug of koolaid and no one will know the difference, so they won't pester you about drinking or try to make you a drink or anything and you can stay safe and sober without having to worry
Why I am here kiddo
I don't drink, but this sounds like it has the potential to be the best or worst idea depending on the individual making it. More water, less alcohol, no caffeine, add some flavor and/or hydration enhancers, then pace yourself, and you might have a recipe for a good time. I still wouldn't drink it, but I get it. With the right tweaks, I approve.
I don't drink very much myself. And when I do it's at home. But if I do these Borg things odds are it would have zero alcohol in them. Like you said it has great potential for good, but also for bad as well depending on the individual 🤷♀.
Yes❤
That perspective of having a Borg for safety is really great, and not something I would have thought of. Because otherwise, it's essentially the simplified gen z version of hunch punch. Everyone had their own recipe, so you had no idea what you were actually drinking-just that it would give you the result you wanted 😂😂
Baby borgs are actually super common!! Lots of people don’t want to drink a whole gallon so a half gallon is pretty useful too :)
Let’s all just appreciate the work,editing,ideas,research and all the work mat pat and his team does just to entertain us ❤
LOL legit if this was a thing when I was 21 I would definitely make it at home without alcohol before going to my friends or a party. I hated being pressured to drink and this would have saved me from all that nonsense.
Here is the full clip explaining why dad left you: (Making fun of bots)
kzclip.org/video/vC0roEkkKkQ/бейне.html
Ah some of the peple i know would spike that :( so youd still need to be careful even then- just. Yeah. I know
I never went to any of my dorm's parties 'cuz I hate not just the taste but also the smell of alcohol... Like I even avoided my roommates' house parties & just "conveniently" made plans with my friends to "go out" (read: meet at someone else & play either dnd or cards xD)
Love the addressing of the whole subject; it’s good that you’re acknowledging how bad the drinking culture is in younger people, and you’re just keeping them informed.
Also, a note from me(someone who’s native to the Western MA area), it’s actually pronounced Am-merst not Am-herst lol
I thought the same thing, I'm from near Northampton and his pronunciation was funny
Finding the silver-lining in all things bad is my favorite thing about the Theory channels. Pairing water intoxication with Caffeine overdose and excess amount of liquor BUT at least you know what's in it and can keep you relatively safe during the parts of the night that you can recollect.
Lol you aren't getting water intoxication with just a half gallon of water spread over a couple hours while you're drinking alcohol. You also aren't gonna overdose on caffeine, a typical person needs to ingest like 3000 mg before that happens. You just shouldn't generally mix caffeine with alcohol.
Thank you Matt from the bottom of my heart and soul for talking about how often people are getting their drinks spiked. More people need to be talking about how bad it's getting and how life altering it can be. Seriously thank you
To be fair I would have liked that back in the day when i was in uni. The idea of getting a fairly good mix of alcohol and water at the same time means I wouldn't have to remember to drink a glass of water after every drink. That really helps with hangovers.
I wouldn't have drunk an entire bottle at one party, because its a bottle of vodka. I'd also skip the caffeine additives. I found out long ago that those mix badly.
The customizability appeals to me. Not more "oh if i bring good liquor to this party everyone is gonna drink it, so i may as well bring the same craptastick drink everyone else got because they are broke".
When I was in college my friends and I made your borg with caffeine-free kool aid because a very nice nurse on campus had told us the dangers of caffeine with alcohol I’m very happy that we were told this before something bad happened
Also, Kool-Aid is a lot cheaper.
Thank you for getting this information out again. It is easy to forget how absolutely dangerous caffeine mixed with alcohol is.
Yeah.... Had a Rum and Coke once and I exploded..... This seems to be more about how dangerous underage drinking is
@Markus Aurelius can't help everyone
@Kevin Stephenson yea, that would be nice, if that would be possible.
@Zoo Pride 🐶💕 wtf 😭
@Crazmuss as someone who gets to live 20 years less because of an actual health condition. How about you live colourfully but longer?
I didn't drink at all at uni (still don't) and if I'd cared about what people thought about that (I didn't) then this would have been a great option.
I did love mixing mocktails. One of my favourites was creme de menthe syrup, lemon juice, and sprite. I drank it out of an obnoxiously huge plastic martini glass. Ah, memories. 😂
I was surprised by the amount of vodka in the recipe.
Back when I was in college, we were buying one bottle par attendant. And we were drinking other alcohol beverages on top of that.
Then I remembered, it was one bottle for the whole night, one bottle for 5-8h of drinking. We were marathoning our nights of alcoholic consumption.
I like the idea behind the borg; the control over your drink. I feel like once people understand just how many drinks they're putting in, they'll be able to make a smarter decision.
I like watching these videos to learn new things. Didn’t think this channel would show me I’m an alcoholic 😂
I always knew since I was a little kid that I would bring my own unmarked apple juice bottle to parties. It's safe, it's fun, and it allows me to be the sober friend to take my wasted friends home haha
As a college student who lives in an area with tons of fraternities, I’ve heard so many people talk about this. One of my friends said that if you didn’t make the Borg it will send you to the morgue, but if you bring your own you’re more likely to make it home.
It's a good way to remember it. Often rhymes are easy ways to remember things plus this one elicits an image in your head that clearly explains the safety in it of itself.
That's the most college thing I've ever heard
All of this is true, because it rhymes.
That is good catchphrase
So solely focusing on the spiked drinks aspect for a moment: I really want there to be a lockable water bottle. Like, have a code you need to put in on the lid or something that only you know to make sure your water (or whatever you choose to put in your cup) doesn’t get spiked. If there is a high quality cup like this out there somewhere, I haven’t found it yet. If anyone knows of one, please share the word!
Heck, even a small key to use that you can keep in your pocket would suffice if it didn’t make the bottle unusable (from the size of the lock lol)
Still, you (and it) should be among a trusted group of friends. You can only put so much security into something before it either becomes too cumbersome to use or wraps back around to being too easy to open.
If one of your friends is either learning about or is highly interested in security (cybersecurity or locksmithing), at least you'd be rest assured that they're on *your* side.
The moment I realized that this drink had caffeine and alcohol in it I instantly thought about the Four Loko situation, and knew the dangers of it already. And was just silently screaming to the heavens, asking why anybody would do that.
Mat thanks for covering this topic from such an objective point of view! I am personally a huge fan of the borg and it’s a big craze at my college (JMU) rn. The main reason we do it is because 1) it’s cheap 2) it’s an easy way to keep all your drinks in one place for the day without having to carry around a whole fifth cops can call out from a mile away or a pack of drinks where half of them are stolen and 3) it’s a conversation starter (people name their borgs crazy things and then talk to others about it). All that being said you’re entirely right about all the facts and people should drink in moderation! I groaned when I saw this pop up in my feed but thank you for a great video as always!
I remember in my early 20s we bring a bottle of Vodak and a bottle of soft drink. Then mix it in a cup. The amount vodak to soft drink increased throughout the night. This was common in Australia as alcohol so expensive especially pre-mixed.
I’m a third year university student and have never heard of “a borg” before until clicking this video 😂 I only commute to my campus for classes and don’t drink for a mix of personal belief and medical reasons so I guess it makes sense lol. I’ve also never been to parties because ew socializing 😂😂😂 I’ll take my coffee fix, just of course at responsible levels of caffeine lol. Please stay safe everyone!
Aaaaah I remember college days. The non drinkers and less experienced drinkers loved my colorful ‘drinks’. Pink lemonade with some fruit and herbs. Made it look like a cocktail but no alcohol. Ever since been making more ‘mock tail’ recipes. I saw borgs at college and that what started me making fake but fancy looking drinks.
Good on you.
I was the 200 or 199 like on this and now it has 224 and then 225.
Bro send that recipe I have to avoid the people
You are GENIUS
I ran into a friend from school a few years back who told me about going to a party with his younger sister. At one point I guess she decided she didn't feel like her drink so he took it. He blacked out and woke up with a broken leg.
The entire video had important information but I'm especially happy that you brought up keeping other people's hands out of your drinks.
As a college student who is in a fraternity, Borgs are big part of the culture, I’ve never seen anyone go to the hospital at my school, (not saying it never happens) but at least everyone I know is pretty careful and drinks the Borg through a long period of time that way to avoid just straight up taking it all in an hour or 2, which I did my first time in accident and didn’t end up in the hospital. (Granted I was throwing up😭 but it was only a bit and I was fine the rest of the day, obviously I didn’t drink further). I think the Borg can be okay if consumed over a longer period of time
1:14:22 *Can we just take a moment to appreciate how much hours and passion she placed in the vids?*
*It is unbelievable, and Iw think they justify a lot more than that.*
Sounds like the key is to use a non-caffeinated flavoring. Also sounds like Buena Vista Cafe has a problem with the drink they invented many years ago, the Irish coffee: very strong coffee, sugar, irish whiskey, and cream. Sooooo yummy, I'm not giving it up, no matter what Matt Pat says.
My roommates and I made these just this past weekend, we did it because taking shots by itself is hard and not fun so we did it for the taste. We used generic water enhancers that have no sugar or caffeine and because we were in a controlled environment, we poured out our borgs into glasses and paced ourselves that way. I think this way is much more efficient than a traditional borg.
I'm actually a really big fan of the baby borg idea. You definitely should not have a full one in your hands while under the influence of alcohol, much less caffeine if you're crazy and want to do that, however having a set amount for you to drink in advance and easily be able to see where you are along that line is great. If someone is wild enough to want to do caffeine and alcohol, having a set amount of each that's specifically measured out is exactly what you need. Ironically, the baby borg can be used as a tool of moderation while the full borg just seems like the complete opposite. It would be really interesting to see how this could evolve.
The "full borg" in those clips Mat showed looks less like a "drinking game" and more like a cry for help from an alcohol addict.
It’s common at my school for a group of friends to share a borg, so it’s not just one person tackling it. Most people also use non-caffeinated flavoring.
And its good if the group also makes it together cause then they all know what is in it and how much is in there
Ya know, I used to think that mixing caffeine and alcohol was just like giving yourself a bit of a boost to keep going on. Sure, I've heard you shouldn't mix the two, uppers and downers, but I didn't see much of an issue with it. After all, I've had plenty of jagerbombs and other shots that have Monster or Red Bull as the mixer. Perhaps I won't do that so much now. (Before you guys think I'm some kinda alcoholic, I don't drink often but do enjoy doing so every now and again.)
Can’t lie I have never heard of Borgs before but this video has informed me and done nothing but make me want to make one
The safety part of Borg is a really good idea I just wouldn't make it a gallon jug and put more than you should- like a safe version
The Mexican equivalent would be "Agua Loca" (crazy water).
You take a 5-gallon water jug and fill about 3/4 of it, add the flavoring powder of your preference and complete with the cheapest alcohol you find (usually "Tonayan" which is made of sugar cane and similar to tequila, has 24% of alcohol and the bottle of 960 ml or 32.4 oz cost around 2-3 USD).
A common drink at student parties and an easy way to get yourself drunk fast with little money.
Being in the UK, and as a teen, we regularly brought entire bottles of vodka with us which were absolutely gone by the end of the night. Borg seems to be a reskin of whatever random stuff we threw together hahaha
MatPat wouldn’t survive a bottle of Buckie! (Buckfast) if he thinks this blue WKD is OTT 😂
People do that here too
Nah, adults are being so dramatic. Just bc College kids have a name for it, doesn’t mean it’s anything new. It’s literally just Jungle Juice, or whatever you called it growing up. Everyone has done it, the only difference is college students carry it around in a gallon jug while most people just poured it in a cup back in the day. It’s actually better for hangovers too since there’s no sugar in the drink, it’s just water, vodka, and flavoring.
I was just about to put something similar! 😂
@Adrian Chazz a more northern Skins, sure 😂
I'm too old (30) to be in on this BORG stuff but until now, my little exposure to it hadn't had me aware of the caffeine being added. I actually kinda liked the idea of the BORG with those last few reasons you were bringing up. I knew that the 'standard' was a 26 (I think that's canadian for a 5th?) as far as alcohol went, but I also knew it was something that could easily adjusted. Obviously the caps on/it being your own personal drink keeps it a bit more safe from being spiked. And then, I remember always being the guy to clean up after parties... and I'd be walking around with like 3 bags of solo cups and cans and bottles completely full. All in all, I wish there was a way to drop the perceived need for heavy drinking in university party culture but this is probably my favourite iteration of it I've seen.
As a college student myself who actually made a borg this weekend, there are a couple of things that MatPat could have done that could have presented the topic without coming across so harsh at times. Big thing is the idea that it’s always 17 shots going in. Never had one with that much, usually less. The idea of a borg is for it not to be over done with alcohol so that you actually enjoy the taste of it. Ten is a number me and my friends mostly settle on. While I know that’s a still lot, it is a bit better. Second is the Mio angle. Most of the borgs at my school, if not all, use non-caffeinated Mio or water sweeteners to avoid the caffeine that we know is dangerous. This just leads to better results all around and makes it less dangerous. Mat even mentioned the Kool Aid flavoring and never brought it back up again. Third is that borgs typically aren’t meant to be consumed in an hour or two. They are meant for over the course of a day or long night that spans multiple hours, meaning the concentrated effects aren’t as strong as one would think. It’s just to have something good to drink on you while having a fun time. And lastly the water in there makes hangovers after borging much more manageable. Might just be me but it seems to work well for others as well. Understand how serious overconsumption of both alcohol and caffeine can be and I am totally on MatPat’s side about that, just seems like some of the video came off a bit harsh as opposed to the reality of what boring actually is. Love seeing something on FoodTheory that I actually have some experience with and can comment on.
Im glad it's harsh, maybe people would cherish life a lil more ⚰️
My friend would make pineapple hunch punch. I don’t even think it had pineapple in it.
It was meant to be drank slowly during the whole party. It had every type of alcohol he could find lol.
the difference between drinking all 17 shots in under an hour, and drinking half the gallon for the time socializing and then heading back to the dorm not finishing it because most people don't finish an entire gallon of anything that fast. mat acting like gen z downing the entire gallon in a single sitting lmao
So true. It felt like he wasn’t really presenting the entire reality of it. Firstly, let’s be real, most students are too broke to afford an entire vodka bottle every time they go out. Most ppl are def not putting that much in their Borgs. And personally, no one Ik ever uses caffeinated sweeteners bc, as he even said in the video, it can make u feel less drunk than u actually are, when the point is that ppl want to feel drunk. The pros of borgs definitely outweigh the cons, especially if ur making one smartly
It's good, then, that the majority of BORG instances are not the abuse of it. A swig from a water jug, not downing a barrel for a dare.
It could possibly relate to M. Patrick being a father of a small child now, and that mindset transplanting itself over to us the audience.
Side bar. I am a college kid myself and have been a teetotaler ever since I entered during the brunt of the _Major Global Event_ .
I think stuff like this is what we need more of, not the borg, but this type of video. The type of video meant to inform people of the dangers & risk of something, but also sympathize for those making the mistakes & possibly seeing the benefits of it. And, entertainment plus education is always good
I think that Borg has potential to be a good good thing depending on how it's made. if it's made by someone irresponsible then its an accident waiting to happen, but if it's someone who knows what they are doing it could be a enjoyable yet safer way to drink!
Does alcohol affect neurodivergent ppl differently? I just got to the part about the dopamine and gaba stuff and I've found that not to be my experience. Honestly, Ive also always been curious and would love to see an episode on if we can determine "what kind of drunk you'll be." Some people are happy, fun, weepy, angry, violent drunks and I'd love to know if there's a reason behind which one you end up being. Like if ppl are genetically predisposed or something.
i am SO happy that MatPat talked about the commonality of spiked drinks; too many people forgot how serious it is 😣
Studies have shown that most people who think they've been spiked actually just drank too much. So the borg is probably not that helpful in preventing "spiked" drinks.
@Ayman Yes, I do want to miss it, EGY Crafts, and you and all of your spam bots need to be terminated at once.
My advice to my friends is to never drink anything you don't own
yeah :/
thats the point of borg too. you bring your own and it cant be spiked because its always with you 😂
Love the fact matpat is pointing out the safety part of it. I can’t trust any drink that wasn’t made by me or can be left open
Hey MatPat and team, I’ve got a theory that I’m interested to see you guys cover: if you had a limited supply of water, would it be better to consume it like you normally would and be hydrated for a short time, or to ration it out so much that you dehydrate yourself?
I’m a lightweight so whenever I made these back in the day I never put alcohol and if I did it was very unnoticeable. It helped me fit in and I stayed safe. 😅
As an ex soroity girl, omg does this video hit close to home. My sorority had a special punch we made for parties that were 2 gallons of lemonade and 3 bottles of alcohol. I found this out after I had one cup of it and had to stop drinking the rest of the party and carbo-load in the corner so I didn't get hungover the next day. Although i will say I've had sisters who would make a borg and share it with each other. With four sisters drinking from the same gallon, everyone was still ok because they were all there when making it so they all new what was in it, but they also all stuck close together to keep the drink and each other safe. The Borg is the best worst idea, especially if you share it with close friends and people you trust.
And also just got to say drugging is such a big problem when drinking. Luckily, I'm on a small campus, and I've really only heard one big story when a frat spiked all their punch, but it was also one of the reasons I never went out, much. I was too paranoid all the time and worried I'd be next. Thanks, MatPat, for keeping everybody safe!
Seriously thank you for talking about things like spiked drinks and the like. Not a lot of youtubers in the genra tend not to bring it up, let alone bring stats into things. As someone who had to be equipped to handle these situations from an age younger than I probably should have, whenever I go out to social settings and end up people watching, I see so many red flags, and have even caught (and stopped) situations happening. So many people are reckless with things like this and it's something I didn't expect to be brought up. Again, thank you so very much for talking about this.
@Nathan Bingham let's gooo
400Th like!Let's go!
@Micia Rokiri I used to have a group I'd get out with. We'd watch over each other, until we lost one of the members. I still go out and I don't drink and know what to do to keep myself safe, but so many people are so trusting. I have protected my friends with my life. That shouldn't end cause I don't know someone, but I've seen other people watch and do nothing. People need to protect others, I'd never not.
It's amazing how much you see when people watching. Thanks for stepping in. A lot of people will see it but either be too far gone themselves to process it, or they don't want to "rock the boat" and keep silent.
I wish everyone had my psychology teacher who taught my class to NEVER MIX UPPERS AND DOWNERS. Thanks Ms. Wagner! But on another note, I feel like Four Loko didn't necessarily deserve to be sued seeing from the video that most of the cases were UNDERAGE kids drinking it. Feel like that's on them and the person who sold it to them. Same thing for the people who were of age but had issues after it. Pretty positive for those cases are just people who drank too much, Same thing would happen if you drank normal alcohol every. Single. Day.
I think it should also be acknowledged that the borg, with a high amount of water and sometimes electrolytes, helps provide hydration without people needing to put too much focus on it
I had friends who went to a party with students from a famous engineer school of my town. they had created their own version of the "borg" but instead called it "the blackout goo". It was a mix of the highest % of alcohol they could find (sometime rumored to be rubbing alcohol) and Nestea powder. They basicallly found out that in higher concentration, the powder hid the taste of alcohol, but still maintained its property. My friends decribed the experience as the weirdest party ever as people would "fall" and just be blackout drunk everywhere.
I still think it a worse than a bad idea. Thanks for bringing the dangers to light!
Has this generation never heard of flasks? They can hold like 5 shots. You are good with that. But sure, Borg, drink your heart out. Good video, MatPat. Very informative. Made me realize just how bad my college peers are probably doing
I am a freshman in college. Party’s are most certainly not my thing so I had no idea what a borg was until I walked into my room while my roommate was gathering the ingredients to make one. I was just like why do you have mio and vodka.
But more new people know what it is because of tiktok. Less people would know and without tiktok it would fade and just be an old memory. Probably.
@Rendokunot a TikTok thing… it’s been a thing for many years now
Tell your roommate to touch grass and stop watching tiktok 😂
I’d ask to taste the vodka
In Brazil, college students do something similar, but it's called Gummy. Is usually water, vodka and a cheap pownder juice (kinda like kool aid). But people make a big bucket to share with the whole party. Once my friend saw someone mixing it with his whole arm. So... not very sanitary😅
Bar the insane levels of caffeine this seems pretty tame to me as a Brit. We had jungle juice and wanna be mixologists at parties at Uni, and to go through a whole litre of spirit plus beers plus maybe whatever else was standard. Still is 10 years later. Honestly My next party I might give it a try sans caffeine (or maybe like a third of that, 6 cans of Red Bull in a night is a lot but not too uncommon at 464.4mg so maybe like 2 or 300mg to keep the buzz aspect) because as you said there's no way I could lose my drink. Although the safety aspects are null and void as we only have people we know round.
Here in the UK we have something called "Dragon Soop" and it sounds a lot like a four loko was. Packed with alcohol and caffeine. Tasted absolutely rancid. I have been drinking too much for ages and it genuinely made me feel worse than drinking like half a bottle of vodka in one night lol.
My college campus is known for it's parties and as well, its spiked drinks. It's honestly scary and makes me worry for my friends who do drink and who do party
I kept wondering why you were putting so much emphasis on the amount of alcohol or caffeine in the jug, because it literally didn't even occur to me that someone would be making this with the intention to drink the entire thing on their own.
i was a lil worried when u sold the channel but when u explained and showed us nothing would change i felt better, plz never stop what u do i would like to see grandpa pat lol you guys have helped me threw a lot and if anybody in the theorist family sees this thank you to
@Hideki Shinichi Sadly I agree. Now tkor is just a KZclip shorts channel. With a couple lifeless videos on between. But I used to like Nate and Callie for the most part. But after grant left as the host it lost some of it's pop. But like you said Grants family has someone in their ear telling them that Nate and the other hosts are making too much and they could just can all the talent and they kept the one boring girl and they are just not good. But all that matters financially is that they can keep low overhead and lower quality but it doesn't matter because they now make cheaper vids and make less money with a worse product. Btw Nate is still going he has a channel called "Nate from the internet. Pretty interesting. But eventually this channel will end up watered down. Every creator that has built up a huge KZclip empire eventually wants to be less involved and spend more time with family and maybe doing another project.
The example with tkor is best.
First we had grant. Then he left to run things behind the scene and it turned into a meh channel. Still ok but nothing as it was before. Then grant passed, company got different management, they got rid of the usual hosts and changed it to 5 min craft esque garbage. Yet they still are up and running. This is going to turn that way eventually or the channels are going to die while trying. Matpat leaving or being essentialy sacked would mean nothing
@Pulkatz sorry, one time I said lifes instead of lives and someone replied seriously saying I was in a cult of ignorance. Spelling suggestions just can easily lead to the reply thread being poisoned. Again really sorry that I replied so meanly, have a great day!
@Micheal Persicko that's what they did on The King of Random channel. Canned the good hosts because they were there from beginning and we're making a percentage of channel. and now the channel is garbage
I totally forgot Matpat sold the channel
Very rarely have I seen such a great analytical video, hats off to you for this one.
The person who invented BORG was definitely one of those kids that would mix every flavor of soda into one cup.
My best friend would bring a bottle of vodka and drink the whole thing every time he came over. I never really thought about how bad that was until later in life. Luckily he has gotten away from that life style.
There's also a lot more non caffeinated mio flavors than caffeinated ones. So not only can you remove the risk that caffeine brings, but have a lot more flavor options.
I used to watch my mom drink an entire 5th straight 3 times a day and once in the middle of the night! She’s been sober now for 4 1/2 years now after she almost died like 3-4 times and had us taken away it crazy how bad drinking is. She got us back and I’m 18 now still ing having to live with my mother to help her out and the fact that I live in not cal. Where there isn’t much work and everything is still priced like the rest of cali…
When you consider that one BORG would be probably shared among multiple people it actually begins to make a great deal of sense.
One handle is 17 shots, divided among 3 people is around 5.6 shots per person.
This is still not perfectly safe, (no alcohol is safe) but assuming that you drink that over the course of around two hours and that is a reasonable amount of alcohol. You will not throw up or be more at risk than anyone else (just maybe find a caffeine-free flavoring method)
Mat pat literally showed an option without caffeine near the start of the episode, but just decided to talk about the caffeinated version for some reason
in germany we call 6 shots: "Vorglühen"
Even if you don’t share it, the BORG is more a product of day drinking culture. So even a person drinking one alone would usually happen over the course of 6+ hours on a casual drinking day like tailgating or barbecuing
from memory, the caffeine and alcohol law is why Jagerbombs are in special glasses as in theory its being served unmixed and mixes as you drink it so it gets around the legal loophole
I could see the benefits making up a large quantity of favored cocktail for storage or sharing, but not single night single person consumption. Would have to be shelf stable, though; my chocolate caramel milk cocktail would not do well long term. You could even get some cheap vodka and steep flavoring into it for your own flavored alcohol. The personal bottle to prevent to drugging is brilliant though. You could get a cute (durable) bottle and make cute custom labels for it. Somewhere, I think I have bottle labels that say "mage tears" and I love the apothecary chic look.
Just... just drink responsibly and be safe.
From what I've read, most borgs are made from 1/2 to 1/3 vodka or liqueur and the rest is juice or sports drink. It's better than drinking straight liqueur all night and if you keep your borg on you at all times, it prevents people from dropping roofies into your drink.
Gringos finally created their own version of sucão, very popular in collages here in Brazil, my favorite version is 1 part vodka for 2 parts lime soda (the cheapest one you can find) and them a couple packets of some random lime flavored store brand cool aid knockoff, perfect for drinking games
Maybe a nasty trend indeed, especially the period in which it is taken. But binge drinking isn’t anything uncommon here in Europe either. People start drinking earlier 16 at home parties and 18 legally, and usually slows down after 35 unless your are an outlier. I drank 15-20 glasses of alcohol and also water in between in some occasion but that’s on a whole night going out (5-6h).
Those stats on spiked drinks are interesting. I think I drank a spiked drink that was intended for someone else when I was in university. I have very little recollection of much past the first drink and spent days throwing up and shivering after. The area I was living was rife with drugs and you could pretty much get anything if you knew someone or looked hard enough.
@Alejandro Quesada Idk kind of sounds like you’ve never experienced or known anyone who’s experienced being drugged and therefore think it’s a non-issue. It might be hard to believe, but this stuff does actually happen and pretty often.
I got a spiked vodka at a strip club and luckily went home before it started hitting. Best sleep of my life though
@Alejandro Quesada well, you do realize that 320,000 is .1% of the US population, so not too suprising to me
@Alejandro Quesada and I'll reiterate. We can't buy benzodiazipines over the counter in the UK so that's a pretty long winded process to go through and not understand how you felt so ill.
At first I assumed this was a thing to share, now I’m concerned. Another thought, have you ever thought of covering “battery acid” it’s monster energy mixed with vodka i believe. It’s pretty popular with teenagers
I wonder how drinks like Irish coffees fit in this when discussing mixing caffeine and alcohol especially since bars and other places selling alcohol often have coffee alcoholic drinks?
Yea, pretty much immediately my reaction to this was "Ok so, just drink less of it and you're fine". 1/2 gallon jugs (with half the vodka) and non-caff flavors should effectively solve the issue. Just make two baby borgs at a time and save the second for another night.
Now getting party going college students to actually do that... is the difficult part.
If you want the benefits he talks about at the end without the borg of it all, I often put a mid strength mix drink into a 40ish oz reusable and closing water bottle and that usually puts me in a good spot for a whole night when I drink it slowly over a few hours.
Also, rule of thumb, don’t accept a bottle or can that isn’t sealed, there isn’t really a reason for anyone to give you an open one unless you ask them to open it for you.
Another thing you didn't mention in the video, you technically don't need to drink it all in one sitting... or day... or week. You don't even need to add the caffeine that makes it extra dangerous. It might've started as alcoholic, but it can basically be whatever you want. As someone who doesn't drink (tried once and the buzz just reminded me of NyQuil) a juice-filled, non-alcoholic variant isn't something I'd be against (and honestly, my family's been doing a kool-aid version for a couple decades anyway. more surprised this is fairly new)
I think in smaller measured quantities, the borg is a great low cost idea at college party settings. Being drugged at parties is a huge issue so I hope some college students use the borg wisely and not to get themselves so drunk they get hospitalized. Maybe rename the smaller borg to something else
The thing I don’t get is why so many people drink alcohol, there are other options so why does everyone sound like they’re saying that alcohol is a required drink once you turn old enough.
The Baby Borg, a half gallon 😂
The borgette
Its college youre giving them too much credit
I have been waiting so long for this :
kzclip.org/video/vC0roEkkKkQ/бейне.html
I remember the days of drinking 4-5 monster energy drinks mixed with 3/4 bottle of vodka. This seems like that with more steps.
The best way to drink and have a good time without a huge risk of overdoing it is to just drink light beer. It's usually at around 4 percent abv, so you have to drink a ton to get wasted. It's also a less dehydrating option, so you're less likely to get a real nasty hangover. Much better option than a borg in my opinion.
I just want to note, in Mexico we do this, since I have memories of drinking, this is basically a recepie for "aguas locas" or "crazy waters"
Wich is a cheep and simple way of getting drunk and that's it
Great video; however, as someone who goes to a party school I will say that a lot of Borg’s don’t use caffeinated flavoring which makes them slightly safer. I’ve borged before but made sure to use non-caffeinated flavoring.
I also wanna note that I still threw up and had a nasty hangover the next day lmao
This was starting to sound like a really bad idea being pushed by FT right up until you said (A) since you made it yourself and you keep it capped, you can make sure nothing is added to it and (B) you can dictate what's in the jug.
Okay, I could see that. I recall college time and while I didn't go to frat parties I did attend one serious business party with college students. Of the five of us, I was the only teetotaler in the group and got ragged on about it by EVERYONE, including our two professors who brought us and the businessmen we were visiting. Then we had the three that drank and drank until one actually got sick in the host's bathroom--not a good sight for the actual adults in the party. And then we had the frat boy. He was smart--he graciously accepted a beer from the host but later my prof said he noticed frat boy NEVER took a swig, he just held it all night like he was consuming.
Which brings me back to (B) up above: want to go to a college party but don't want to drink and don't want to be harassed about not drinking? Bring a jug of "BORG" that's nothing but Kool-Aid.
I expected Matt to say the amount of water in a Borg is great for making you less intoxicated, but customization and safety are cool as well.
Drinking nearly a gallon of water isn't exactly safe either, but it pales in comparison to drinking that much alcohol/caffeine.
@Captinelf27 nope
It is better assuming if you are not swigging the entire jug
does he mention the huge amount of water to dilute it?
i think the trick to this would be to measure and draw lines at intervals of one standard drink down the jug.
even if its not 100% accurate, it gives you something to measure against and keep you conscious of how much youve actually drank.
I honestly love the safety aspect of the borg to prevent spiking anyones drink. I would totally just make an orange baby borg, which would just be the equivalent of a screwdriver (oj+vodka) and skip all the caffine
Congratulation got something for you special let's.... Talk 🎉🎉🎉❤..
If you are smart with it it’s genius. You put whatever you want in it, as little as you need if you’re smart, and no one can spike it. Great trend
from what I have heard on the topic, one of the LARGEST reasons why people like it so much is due to the high water content which greatly reduces hangover symptoms
I made some of this in college (no alcohol). I made a little milk jug with fabric with a beaded handle made of braided cloth lol.
Matt honestly does offer the best solution here - just make the bottle smaller. Minimize the risks by reducing the amount of dangerous chemicals being imbibed, and you keep all of the safety features the borg already has!
Then it’s just home made four loko
Also use the flavorings without caffeine. All the flavor, none of the trips to the emergency room!
It’s also a more reasonable serving size and a lot easier to carry around like gallons of a drink are heavy, I wouldn’t want to carry that all around in a party
When inwas in college my ex and I used to make "show juice" which was Rum, Mio, and Water in a Gatorade bottle so it was discrete. We used to get blackout drunk off it every Tuesday lol It was a bad good idea but at the time it seemed genius!
I think a “safer” borg would use fruit juice (or a mixer syrup used for cocktails), flavored water (without caffeine), and much less alcohol to water ratio. I know it’s about getting wasted for cheap but maybe this would be a better and more fun solution. Like a jug of Hippie Juice (one of my favorite cocktails)
I am willing to believe those spiked drinks numbers, but they don't really pass the smell test for me. I had a social life in college that was slightly less than average. I was part of a fairly large but close knit friend group. I had some other friends and went to maybe half a dozen parties that extended meaningfully beyond my friend group. None of my close friends have experienced it, and I'm only aware of a handful of my acquaintances who have experienced it.
I'm from the south. If we find out that someone SA'ed our daughter or girlfriend or best friend, the perpetrator is not going to be long for this world. If this kind of drug stuff was so rampant, I'd expect a lot more revenge murders.
We dipped cups in a cooler of “jungle juice” at frat and house parties. And drank from the beer pong cups. 😔 So lucky nothing sketchy never happened to me or my friends..