Tea, hot, served in Central America … (3)
I believe the answer is:
cha
'tea' is the definition.
(cha is a type of tea)
'hot served in central america' is the wordplay.
'hot' becomes 'h' (abbreviation, eg on taps).
'served in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'central' becomes 'c' (common abbreviation in various government acronyms).
'america' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation eg in USA).
'c'+'a'='ca'
'h' placed within 'ca' is 'CHA'.
(Other definitions for cha that I've seen before include "drink" , "Indian tea" , "not allowed in ski lodge" , "Tea (colloquial)" , "Rosie Lee (slang)" .)