Nescafe's billboard campaign against Starbucks, including this sign in downtown Seattle, is not the instant coffee brand's first battle with the relative whippersnapper from Seattle.

A decade ago, Nescafe shifted its focus to specialty gourmet coffee after watching Starbucks snag some of its grocery store sales.

Now the coffee purveyors are slinging it out with nationwide ad campaigns. McDonald's launched a campaign this spring to accompany the completion of its years-long rollout of espresso drinks.

Starbucks is fighting back with billboards, full-page ads and online messages, prompting a Twitter co-founder to tell Bloomberg this week that it wants to offer special services to Starbucks, Whole Foods and others who use the site to connect with customers.

Starbucks also debuted its first instant coffee this year, prompting Nescafe to post billboards in Seattle and Chicago taking Starbucks to task for being late to the game and pricey.

Pam Krebs, a manager in the beverage division of Nestle USA in Glendale, Calif., said in an e-mail that the company wants to remind people that its 70-year-old Nescafe brand is "a great-tasting, high quality cup of coffee, with a wide variety of blends and flavor options at the right price."

She didn't name Starbucks, but wrote that "other competitors" charge more.

The billboards aren't so circumspect. The one pictured above names Starbucks specifically, and another reads: "Starbucks makes great instant. We make great instant. So why does theirs cost 400% more?"

Stoking the latest battle is a Chicago Tribune taste test comparing Nescafe, Starbucks' instant Via and regular brewed coffee. The brew won, followed by Starbucks.