The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 2 plus 6 letter word CREME DE MENTHE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
C
R
E
M
E
D
E
M
E
N
T
H
E
More clues leading to the result CREME DE MENTHE
- Key army corps almost crazy about hotel’s liqueur
- Liqueur cheered Met men after storm
- Man chasing solution, endlessly in bind, shows spirit
- 100 engineers briefly irrational, having ingested hard liquor
- Met men cheered wildly — because of alcoholic drink
- Solution mostly found in bond with man offering drink
- A hundred troops send mad ambassador to get drink
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "spirit" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case spirit = creme de menthe.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.