Empty calabash, excellent for tea (4)
I believe the answer is:
chai
'tea' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'empty calabash excellent' is the wordplay.
'empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'excellent' becomes 'ai' (resembles 'A1', old-fashioned term for excellent).
'calabash' with its centre taken out is 'ch'.
'ch'+'ai'='CHAI'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for chai that I've seen before include "Form of tea" , "lady" .)