diff --git a/manifests/db/mysql.pp b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
index 8441e60..2e35e43 100644
--- a/manifests/db/mysql.pp
+++ b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 #    Optional. Defaults to undef.
 #
 #  [*charset*]
-#    the database charset. Optional. Defaults to 'latin1'
+#    the database charset. Optional. Defaults to 'utf8'
 #
 class heat::db::mysql(
   $password      = false,
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ class heat::db::mysql(
   $user          = 'heat',
   $host          = 'localhost',
   $allowed_hosts = undef,
-  $charset       = 'latin1'
+  $charset       = 'utf8'
 ) {
 
   validate_string($password)
diff --git a/spec/classes/heat_db_mysql_spec.rb b/spec/classes/heat_db_mysql_spec.rb
index ae53a31..f4141be 100644
--- a/spec/classes/heat_db_mysql_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/classes/heat_db_mysql_spec.rb
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ describe 'heat::db::mysql' do
       :dbname    => 'heat',
       :user      => 'heat',
       :host      => 'localhost',
-      :charset   => 'latin1'
+      :charset   => 'utf8'
     }
   end