However short, tea break is capital! (9)
I believe the answer is:
bucharest
'is capital' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'however short tea break' is the wordplay.
'however' becomes 'but' (I've seen this before).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'tea' becomes 'cha' (cha is a type of tea).
'break' becomes 'rest' (resting is a kind of breaking).
'but' with its last letter taken off is 'bu'.
'bu'+'cha'+'rest'='BUCHAREST'
(Other definitions for bucharest that I've seen before include "European capital" , "Romanian capital" , "European city" , "Balkan city" , "Capital of Romania" .)