Said to be soft-hearted and very nice (5)
I believe the answer is:
sapid
'nice' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sapid that I've seen before include "Interesting" , "Full of flavour" , "Having a pleasant taste" , "Pleasant tasting" , "Engaging" .)