diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
index 91ee357d6a9..c33d4382719 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
@@ -2727,9 +2727,9 @@ def test_check_encoding_is_consistent_after_append(self) -> None:
             compressor = numcodecs.Blosc()
 
             if have_zarr_v3:
-                encoding = {"da": {"compressor": compressor}}
-            else:
                 encoding = {"da": {"codecs": [compressor]}}
+            else:
+                encoding = {"da": {"compressor": compressor}}
             ds.to_zarr(store_target, mode="w", encoding=encoding, **self.version_kwargs)
             ds_to_append.to_zarr(store_target, append_dim="time", **self.version_kwargs)
             actual_ds = xr.open_dataset(