My Burley / Perique blend has evolved. It's been my daily driver for a couple months now.
Full Bodied, good nic hit, real smooth. Probably make a great cig.
32 parts Burley (Red Tips mix in nicely too, this really smoothes out the bite)
8 parts Perique
4 parts Virginia (Ripe, Red, Lemon, whatever you got. It's more to adjust the PH than anything else)
1 parts Light Fired
1 parts Dark Fired (I've found that no DF is too subtle, and all DF is a hair too heavy. YMMV depending on your taste)
The tobacco is cased enough to work in to a twist without crumbling, but no extra.
I roll it in to a twist, cut finger length sections, then quarter it, slice it, and rub it to Ribbon cut over a few days.
Give it a week or 2 in a loosely open plastic bag till it's just a little more moist than crumbling (you can tell because the Perique gets real nice and stinky).
I've tried pressing it. Pressing it relatively dry had no beneficial effect.
Pressing it moist had a detrimental effect. I lost the benefits of the perique.
The stink (the sort of butt smell that gives you the fruity flavor when smoked) disappeared, and didn't return after drying, and the alkaline tongue bite was pronounced.
Take my pressing info with a grain of salt, it may well be due to my inexperience, but it seems to me that the benefits of Perique are lost when blended too damp.
Maybe someone more experienced can clue me in?