diff --git a/tests/test_servefile.py b/tests/test_servefile.py
index cf76cf6..cf40243 100644
--- a/tests/test_servefile.py
+++ b/tests/test_servefile.py
@@ -92,11 +92,14 @@ def datadir(tmp_path):
 
 
 def make_request(path='/', host='localhost', port=SERVEFILE_DEFAULT_PORT, method='get', protocol='http', timeout=5,
-                 **kwargs):
+                 encoding='utf-8', **kwargs):
     url = '{}://{}:{}{}'.format(protocol, host, port, path)
     print('Calling {} on {} with {}'.format(method, url, kwargs))
     r = getattr(requests, method)(url, **kwargs)
 
+    if r.encoding is None and encoding:
+        r.encoding = encoding
+
     return r