Cocktail fruit dropping on needle shortly (7)
I believe the answer is:
melange
'cocktail' is the definition.
(both can mean a mixture)
'dropping on needle shortly' is the wordplay.
'dropping on' becomes 'mel' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'needle' becomes 'anger' (both can mean to annoy).
'shortly' means to remove the last letter.
'anger' with its final letter taken off is 'ange'.
'mel'+'ange'='MELANGE'
'fruit' is the link.
This may not be correct. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for melange that I've seen before include "Medley" , "Varied mixture" , "mixed collection" , "Miscellany" , "Confusion" .)