Sample in the fridge tastes better

I racked my cider from primary to secondary after 3 weeks when it finished fermenting. at that point It was pretty dry, and had a little bit of a fruity taste but I wouldn't really consider it drinkable. I added sugar to a sample size and it still wasn't very good, so I put the sample in the fridge. I tasted it daily and it was still not great after a day or 2, but last night made about a week in the fridge and it tastes a lot better. Is that just because a lot of the yeast dropped out (Like cold crashing), or were there some additional changes from being in the fridge?

Last night I racked from the secondary onto some apple juice concentrate with campden tabs and potassium sorbate. I tasted the mixture and it still isn't great. Will the batch of cider get to tasting as good as the sample in the fridge, it just needs more time to clear? I figure it will probably take what, maybe a close to a month to taste as good as the sample in the fridge and clear up so I can bottle it?

up

Normally you use sorbate and campden to completely clear cider a few days before sweetening. By adding it at the same time as the sweetener, I"m not sure the sorbate will completely inhibit fermentation from restarting. If the cider was completely and totally clear, then maybe. But if the cider wasn't clear to begin with, the sorbate won't "work".

In any case, aging does great things for cider and cold conditioning really helps drop out any excess yeast and acids so that helps a lot too.

Hmm, thanks Yooper. I will keep that in mind next time. It has been a few days and I haven't seen any movement in the air locks. I was just hoping that aging it will produce the same taste as the sample in the fridge. I might be able to get my mini fridge from my mom's house this weekend so I may put the cider in there for a while if it will fit. I could probably replace the air locks with caps on the jugs since it isn't fermenting because the air locks would be too tall for the fridge...