Note about working with carbon drink (5)
I believe the answer is:
tonic
'drink' is the definition.
(I know that tonic is a type of soft drink)
'note about working with carbon' is the wordplay.
'note' becomes 'n' (abbreviation).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'working with' becomes 'toi' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'carbon' becomes 'C' (chemical symbol).
'n' placed within 'toi' is 'toni'.
'toni'+'c'='TONIC'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tonic that I've seen before include "Gin mixer - pick-me-up" , "Stimulus" , "Accompaniment to gin?" , "something medicinal" , "something invigorating" .)