Don't worry too much about early aftertastes in cider, often they contain some artificial sweetener which will mellow out when matured / carbonated / chilled properly.
The trouble is that you need some kind of residual sweetness, otherwise cider is very (usually too) dry, and certainly doesn't taste much like apples. The same goes for any fruit really.
Adding more sugar (or honey) is usually a bad idea as it will tend to ferment out, producing more alcohol and dryness but no sweetness.
If you find your cider has turned out too dry, you can try adding a small amount of artificial sweetener and maybe some lactose to round it up a bit, otherwise just add some syrup in the glass when serving.
'Real' cider is often served 'live' (in other words, it is not yet fully fermented) or it is served flat and sherry-like, where basically extra sugars are added until such time as the yeast poops out, then a bit more is added for sweetness, resulting in a strong syrupy drink. Commercial ciders are usually pasteurised to halt yeast activity and then extra sugar or juice can be added to sweeten the final product.
If you are bottling it is very difficult to produce anything other than a very dry product. If you are kegging you can play around with filters and campden tablets to stop the fermentation early (or add extra sugar/juice for sweetness) and artificially carbonate.
EDIT - I really don't recommend adding malt, I've tried a few ciders with malt and they are always dreadful IMHO.
