Monks initially ready to tuck into a lot of tea subsequently (8)
I believe the answer is:
brethren
'monks' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'initially ready to tuck into a lot of tea subsequently' is the wordplay.
'initially ready' becomes 'r' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to tuck into' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a lot of' means to remove the last letter (a lot of the word but not all of it).
'tea' becomes 'brew' (brew can informally mean a cup of tea).
'subsequently' becomes 'then' (synonyms).
'brew' with its last letter removed is 'bre'.
'bre'+'then'='brethen'
'r' inserted within 'brethen' is 'BRETHREN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for brethren that I've seen before include "Siblings (archaic)" , "Members of Society" , "Brothers; Plymouth -" , "Ancient brothers" , "See 12" .)