Beginners often comment that when doing cuts they find it hard to distinguish the various parts and too often it is found that they are simply sampling straight out of the jars .
Samples should always be dilluted down before sampling and the ideal ABV is around 35% .
Diluting a sample really opens up the flavours........the good and the bad ....exactly what you need to be able to taste to make the best cuts you can .
Diluting Too much will often give a sense of a weak flavoured spirit making it hard to judge its charactor. After taking a weak sample , the tendancy is to take another .....but often it ends up too high in ABV ......Bammm...taste buds fried .
Once you have had samples at too higher ABV then you might as well pack it in for the night as you can no longer make an informed descision . Things like tails just can't be detected and iffn you do go ahead and maker your cuts , you usually regret it .
I used to do cuts with my old dipp'n spoon
Dip it in the jar , splash in some water and have a taste ....it kinda worked . I still use this method for on the fly testing . Dip the spoon in some water , hold it under the spout for a few splashes and have a taste .
But its pretty hit and miss and the ABV can be all over the place .
Recently , I come up with a much improved method which makes repeatability of samples during cuts much better and it also eliminates another major issue encountered when making cuts ....Getting Maggoted
And while a few teaspoons seems good at the time , 10mls becomes 50mls becomes 200mls
This new method means only about 1ml - 2mls per sip ...enough to make a reasonable decision but not so much as to impair decision making when many samples up / down through the jars needs to be made.
So here it is ....my glass tube
Coloured water added for clarity Well big woop you say
....maybe ...but it works 
...and its quick as to use .Its just a piece of glass tube about 4mm in diameter with about a 2mm hole up its clacka .
Sure , you can use glass syringes and pipettes and the like but they are sooooooooo fiddly and time consuming to use ...this dead easy .
This is what I do
1) Dip it into the sample up to the mark ....( STICK YOUR THUMB OVER THE END ........so it stays in there)
2)Let it go into a teaspoon
3)Dip it into some water up to another mark which is the ABV of the sample ( STICK YOUR THUMB OVER THE END )
4)Let it mix into the sample in the spoon ( a quick stir won't hurt )
5)Taste it
I got out the calculator
Here are the magic marks ......it just so happened to be a nice linear scale .....Yes you can choose any spacing you like , mm , 1/8" of an inch ...doesn't matter so long as you can dip it far enough into you jar . ...Just scale it .
Now I don't like Maker pen in my drink so I scored the marks I care about with a file and wiped off the Marker pen .
I have made a few ...one for when I do neutrals in the VM that are always around 95% , one for the Pot still which is around 60-80% and one for the Flute which is around 85-95%
( Just be careful not to score the tube too much as this is the exact technique used to "snap" the stuff to size.)
In-fact you don't need to score it at all if your Eye-O-Meter is good enough at repeated " rough enough is good enough Measurements "
So here's my spirit Run
I'm collecting in 500ml jars .....Thank goodness we buy a lot of Pasta sauce
I have left them covered overnight to air and have them all lined up on the table .
To make decent cuts you need at least 20-30 jars .
If you only have 7 full jars ...it just ain't gonna work so well .......next time only a third fill those jars ...you gotta have choices
So Let The Fun Begin
Take a sample from about the the middle jar .....Remember , dip the Glass tube up to the "Sample " position ......it is the same every sample ( only the water level varys) .....(and you don't have to be ubba anal ) .....close enough is better than a random splash in a spoon .
Release the sample into you spoon
Dip the tube into the water up to the ABV % mark that approximates the strength of the sample .
Add the water to the sample in the spoon ....stir if you please .
TASTE IT
Now repeat up and down the jars
You will find a Bland tight Hearts Cut in the middle that is ...welll...boring but safe
You will find the decidedly heads section that is a definite nogo .......like wise there will be a tails section that is only fit for feints .
Then there will be a group eitherside of the tight hearts cut that you can't quite decide on and likewise a section of tailsy jars that are questionable .
When making flavoured spirits these are the tricky jars that will either enhance or worsen the final spirit .