Cider discussion. Hopping and other cider additions.

I want to get some people to join in on this. There don't seem to be a whole lot of cider recipes on the site. I thought I would share what my recipe's have been and what direction im considering taking it in. Also would like to get some feedback from anyone else who has done similar brews.

My brew has been the following. I have tried changing some of the sugar out for honey.

5 gal. local cider
5lbs sugar
4lbs brown sugar
1 packet of lavalin wine yeast

Generally i ferment this for a few days, transfer it into a second carboy and let it sit, it generally drops from a OG of 1.091 to close to 1.00. im coming out to be around 10 % i would like to make this go just a little high (could some yeast nutrients help bring this up) once the cider sat in the bottles for a while, the taste really leveled out and the carbonation was just perfect. this took about 2 weeks, but i think that the taste improved with around 4-6 weeks.

I have tried using honey and adding raspberries (made a batch with 4 lbs frozen berries. would use 6-8 next time. be sure to strain out seeds). really enjoyed the raspberry cider. For my next batch i want to try adding some hops, and even some malt or grains. Im wondering if anyone else has tried this and what their recipes may have been. I was thinking maybe 2-3 gallons of cider, boiling 2 ounzes of hops throughout boil, im not sure about grains or malts to use. maybe just 4lbs of LME. I'm guessing I will end up with a batch of hopped cider with some level of grain flavor, i would like it to be around 6-7% ABV

I was drinking a store bought cider the other day and I noticed it tasted a bit better than my usual strongbow, after reading the ingredients, I noticed the good taste was in fact, caramel!