Melly Barajas Cárdenas is a Mexican master distiller of tequila.^[1] As of 2018 she was one of only 12 female master distillers in Mexico.^[1] According to La Opinión she is known in Mexico as the Queen of Tequila.^[2]

Barajas Cárdenas is from Guadalajara.^[1] Sometime in the 1990s, while working there as a teacher and clothing designer, she vacationed with her father in Mazamitla, where the family owned a home, and they discussed the fact Europe had recently granted appellation of origin of tequila to Mexico and his own desire to have a tequila with his name on it.^[1][3][2] Barajas Cárdenas interpreted this as something she could make happen and started looking for a distillery that would produce a few bottles, but as she investigated the industry she became interested.^[1][2] In 2019 she recalled, "I thought it was going to be like a little gift of a few thousand pesos to make his bottles and that he could drink them with his friends, but it turned into something more."^[2]

Barajas Cárdenas left her two jobs and began to work on formally entering the industry as a producer.^[2] In 1999, when she was about 22,^[2] Barajas Cárdenas opened the distillery Raza Azteca in Valle de Guadalupe, Jalisco, operated by her umbrella company Vinos y Licores Azteca.^[1][4] Eventually Barajas Cárdenas was also able to buy her own agave fields.

Barajas Cárdenas' distillery famously produces the tequila brand La Gritona, owned by Andy Coronado.^[5]

The company produces three house brands of tequila and several for other tequila brands.^[1] The company employs mostly women and produces tequila using traditional methods which extend the process from the hours in commercial production to a week.^[1] Agave, tequila's main ingredients, is roasted in masonry ovens, and fermentation is allowed to happen naturally.^[1] According to Barajas Cárdenas, as of 2019 the distillery produced 3000 liters per day.^[2]

According to tequila writer M.A. Morales, Barajas Cárdenas is one of only a few Master Distillers importing to the United States four award-winning tequila labels simultaneously.^[6]

• Morales, M. A. (5 May 2019). From Babes to Boss Ladies: The Women Who Contribute to and Create Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, Bacanora and Other Mexican Spirits. Independently Published. ISBN 978-1-0960-9472-2.