diff --git a/manifests/db/mysql.pp b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
index 3cc850c..8654307 100644
--- a/manifests/db/mysql.pp
+++ b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ class cinder::db::mysql (
   $user          = 'cinder',
   $host          = '127.0.0.1',
   $allowed_hosts = undef,
-  $charset       = 'latin1',
+  $charset       = 'utf8',
   $cluster_id    = 'localzone'
 ) {
 
diff --git a/spec/classes/cinder_db_mysql_spec.rb b/spec/classes/cinder_db_mysql_spec.rb
index a35b16c..9227986 100644
--- a/spec/classes/cinder_db_mysql_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/classes/cinder_db_mysql_spec.rb
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ describe 'cinder::db::mysql' do
       :user         => 'cinder',
       :password     => 'pw',
       :host         => '127.0.0.1',
-      :charset      => 'latin1'
+      :charset      => 'utf8'
      ) }
   end
   describe "overriding allowed_hosts param to array" do