diff --git a/tests/handlers/tests.py b/tests/handlers/tests.py
index 9d47b0b0835..812dd3f22d1 100644
--- a/tests/handlers/tests.py
+++ b/tests/handlers/tests.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# coding: utf-8
+
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler, WSGIRequest
@@ -5,6 +7,7 @@ from django.core.signals import request_started, request_finished
 from django.db import close_old_connections, connection
 from django.test import RequestFactory, TestCase, TransactionTestCase
 from django.test.utils import override_settings
+from django.utils.encoding import force_str
 from django.utils import six
 
 
@@ -41,10 +44,12 @@ class HandlerTests(TestCase):
     def test_non_ascii_cookie(self):
         """Test that non-ASCII cookies set in JavaScript are properly decoded (#20557)."""
         environ = RequestFactory().get('/').environ
-        raw_cookie = 'want="café"'.encode('utf-8')
-        environ['HTTP_COOKIE'] = raw_cookie if six.PY2 else raw_cookie.decode('iso-8859-1')
+        raw_cookie = 'want="café"'
+        if six.PY3:
+            raw_cookie = raw_cookie.encode('utf-8').decode('iso-8859-1')
+        environ['HTTP_COOKIE'] = raw_cookie
         request = WSGIRequest(environ)
-        self.assertEqual(request.COOKIES['want'], "café")
+        self.assertEqual(request.COOKIES['want'], force_str("café"))
 
 
 class TransactionsPerRequestTests(TransactionTestCase):