The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word BARISTA
B
A
R
I
S
T
A
More clues leading to the result BARISTA
- Starbucks employee in Zanzibar is Taiwanese
- Café worker? A man filling bill is recalled
- Cappuccino maker is putting chocolate on it — cheers!
- Save one's cheers for the person serving the drinks
- Coffee maker’s ace, except it’s gone wrong before
- One regularly making latkes saving bit of stuff in palm
- For him, work is a constant grind
- Prohibition as it affected coffee shop worker
- Gentleman overwhelmed by a bill set about cafe’s employee
- Employee of coffee shop in Italian city street area
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "hot drinks vendor, perhaps" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case hot drinks vendor, perhaps = barista.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.
What does BARISTA mean?
BARISTA noun- A person who prepares coffee in a coffee shop for customers.