The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 7 letter word TEQUILA SUNRISE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
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More clues leading to the result TEQUILA SUNRISE
- Heady mixture of qualities nurse developed
- Nurse with qualities combining spirit and something softer?
- Note star, rebel after quite staggering drink
- Dawn follows quiet sauntering by lake with a cocktail
- Liqueur, asset in exotic cocktail
- and 16: Mixture of drinks American knocked back during equine trials, excitedly
- Shaken + stirred, use dash of rum in it = cocktail
- Liqueur and tisanes blended to form cocktail
- Drunk queries US/Latin cocktail
- Getting quite drunk with ales ruins cocktail
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "spirit and something softer" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case spirit and something softer = tequila sunrise.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.