ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

If you want to cut out or cut down on alcohol, there are more options than ever. The non-alcoholic drink market is booming. At a recent tasting festival for cocktails, beer and wine without alcohol, tickets sold out. NPR's Bill Chappell went to the Mindful Drinking Fest here in Washington, and here's what he learned.

BILL CHAPPELL, BYLINE: Some people came because they quit drinking after having kids or for health or other reasons. Some just aren't into alcohol or they want to try life without it. Mainly, they came to have fun.

MARIA BASTASCH: Oh, people came with so much energy and so much positive energy. I mean, we had a line out the door, which was awesome to see.

CHAPPELL: That's Maria Bastasch, the festival's creative director. For the record, she and the other organizers do not want to bring back prohibition.

BASTASCH: Well, the biggest thing is, like, I'm not against alcohol. Like, I still imbibe. But I just want to have more choices.

CHAPPELL: The festival had plenty of those, from ginger old fashioneds to espresso martinis and sophisticated spritzers. Taking it all in was Leah Silverman, who lives in the D.C. area.

LEAH SILVERMAN: I've never really been a drinker. And I just found out about non-alcoholic drinks. I honestly didn't know that they existed. But it's cool. As someone who doesn't really drink, it's fun to watch people make fancy drinks and - I don't know - partake.

CHAPPELL: Silverman came to the festival with her boyfriend, Kurien Thomas, who says he mainly drinks when he's catching up with friends or meeting new people. To him, having good non-alcoholic options means more people feel like they belong. With no threat of a hangover, the couple tasted around 20 different drinks in a few hours.

KURIEN THOMAS: I tried this Kentucky mule cocktail, which was really good because it actually mimicked the Moscow mule flavor of a cocktail that I usually try. So it felt really familiar, really comfortable. And I liked the spiciness of it too. So it was good.

CHAPPELL: These cocktails use complex ingredients like the bitters made by Carly and Ian Blessing in Chico, Calif. They used to be sommeliers at the famous French Laundry restaurant in Napa and even ran the non-alcoholic program there.

CARLY BLESSING: Absolutely. It has changed so much. When Ian and I were at the French Laundry, we each at different times were in charge of the non-alcoholic program there. And there weren't very many options at the time. So it was a lot of just juices and sodas and things like that. And then now, five years later, four years later, there are so many options. You can recreate any cocktail in the world you want, which is so exciting for people.

CHAPPELL: It's a whole new world for non-drinkers, who now have a reason to look forward to seeing the cocktail list. Bill Chappell, NPR News.