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Tea service and tea finally on the counter (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

assam

'tea' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'service and tea finally on the counter' is the wordplay.
'service' becomes 'mass' (mass is a church service).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'finally' says to take the final letters.
'on the counter' says the letters should be written in reverse (counter can mean in the opposite direction).
The last letter of 'tea' is 'a'.
'mass'+'a'='massa'
'massa' reversed gives 'ASSAM'.

(Other definitions for assam that I've seen before include "Indian state famous for tea" , "Type of tea" , "brew?" , "Quality cuppa" , "N East Indian state?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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