yes what max stout said plus if i may add;
1) the juice definitely matters. better juice (but not necessarily more expensive) always yields better cider.
2) are you using edworts recipe. if so . use less sugar and add black tea for tannins and lemon or lime juice for acid. apples for juicing are not nearly as tart as cider apples. and the tannins in the skin are needed for good cider which will be lacking in store bought juice.
3) motts is the best. apple and eve is acceptable. the rest of the juices are ***** IMO for making apfelwein or cider. even martinellis (the good stuff) is no good. pay the extra money for the juice its the main ingredient.
4) in my experience apple juice makes better apfelwien and cider than unfiltered store bought market cider. (and much quicker to clear)
5) add pectinase even in filtered store boguht juice it seems to make my wine clearer.
6 )
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/grahams-english-cider.107152/
7) flavor your ciders by adding cordials at bottling or kegging. or juices ( backsweetening with applejuice works very well.
8) i almost left out the most important one. use ale yeast not wine yeast and add nutrients (DAP) or pitch directly on a beer yeast cake without nutrients.
all of these things will make your cider better and much faster. without these additions i have noticed it takes months to be good. with these i have made great ciders in 3 weeks.
ciders are great pipeline filler.,
im gonna go put on a cider right now. they are quick and cheap and delish>