setting default encoding for content returned with responseBody annotation

applicationContext-sample-servlet.xml

<mvc:annotation-driven>
    <!-- register custom converter that returns UTF-8 encoded response-body by defualt -->
    <mvc:message-converters register-defaults="true">
        <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.StringHttpMessageConverter">
            <constructor-arg index="0" name="defaultCharset" value="UTF-8"/>
        </bean>
    </mvc:message-converters>
</mvc:annotation-driven>

.
.
.

<context:component-scan base-package="com.sample.rest"/>

sampleController.java

@RequestMapping(produces = MediaType.APPLICATION_XML_VALUE)
@ResponseBody
public String getXml() {
    awesomeService.getSpectacularXml()
}