diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/CustomUnifiedHighlighterTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/CustomUnifiedHighlighterTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..d101cf1fa184b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/CustomUnifiedHighlighterTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright Elasticsearch B.V. and/or licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements. Licensed under the Elastic License
+ * 2.0 and the Server Side Public License, v 1; you may not use this file except
+ * in compliance with, at your election, the Elastic License 2.0 or the Server
+ * Side Public License, v 1.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.subphase.highlight;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperService;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ParsedDocument;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.builder.SearchSourceBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.HighlighterTestCase;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+public class CustomUnifiedHighlighterTests extends HighlighterTestCase {
+
+    public void testSimpleTermHighlighting() throws IOException {
+
+        MapperService mapperService = createMapperService("""
+            { "_doc" : { "properties" : {
+                "field" : { "type" : "text" }
+            }}}
+            """);
+
+        ParsedDocument doc = mapperService.documentMapper().parse(source("""
+            { "field" : "this is some text" }
+            """));
+
+        SearchSourceBuilder search = new SearchSourceBuilder().query(QueryBuilders.termQuery("field", "some"))
+            .highlighter(new HighlightBuilder().field("field"));
+
+        Map<String, HighlightField> highlights = highlight(mapperService, doc, search);
+        assertHighlights(highlights, "field", "this is <em>some</em> text");
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/HighlighterTestCase.java b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/HighlighterTestCase.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..637053c70c160
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/HighlighterTestCase.java
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright Elasticsearch B.V. and/or licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements. Licensed under the Elastic License
+ * 2.0 and the Server Side Public License, v 1; you may not use this file except
+ * in compliance with, at your election, the Elastic License 2.0 or the Server
+ * Side Public License, v 1.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.search.fetch;
+
+import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.text.Text;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperService;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperServiceTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ParsedDocument;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.query.ParsedQuery;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.query.SearchExecutionContext;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.SearchHit;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.builder.SearchSourceBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.subphase.highlight.FastVectorHighlighter;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.subphase.highlight.HighlightField;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.subphase.highlight.HighlightPhase;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.subphase.highlight.Highlighter;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.subphase.highlight.PlainHighlighter;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.subphase.highlight.UnifiedHighlighter;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
+
+public class HighlighterTestCase extends MapperServiceTestCase {
+
+    protected Map<String, Highlighter> getHighlighters() {
+        return Map.of(
+            "unified",
+            new UnifiedHighlighter(),
+            "fvh",
+            new FastVectorHighlighter(getIndexSettings()),
+            "plain",
+            new PlainHighlighter()
+        );
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Runs the highlight phase for a search over a specific document
+     * @param mapperService the Mappings to use for highlighting
+     * @param doc           a parsed document to highlight
+     * @param search        the search to highlight
+     */
+    protected final Map<String, HighlightField> highlight(MapperService mapperService, ParsedDocument doc, SearchSourceBuilder search)
+        throws IOException {
+        Map<String, HighlightField> highlights = new HashMap<>();
+        withLuceneIndex(mapperService, iw -> iw.addDocument(doc.rootDoc()), ir -> {
+            SearchExecutionContext context = createSearchExecutionContext(mapperService, new IndexSearcher(ir));
+            HighlightPhase highlightPhase = new HighlightPhase(getHighlighters());
+            FetchSubPhaseProcessor processor = highlightPhase.getProcessor(fetchContext(context, search));
+            FetchSubPhase.HitContext hitContext = new FetchSubPhase.HitContext(new SearchHit(0, "id", null, null), ir.leaves().get(0), 0);
+            processor.process(hitContext);
+            highlights.putAll(hitContext.hit().getHighlightFields());
+        });
+        return highlights;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Given a set of highlights, assert that any particular field has the expected fragments
+     */
+    protected static void assertHighlights(Map<String, HighlightField> highlights, String field, String... fragments) {
+        assertNotNull(highlights.get(field));
+        Set<String> actualFragments = Arrays.stream(highlights.get(field).getFragments()).map(Text::toString).collect(Collectors.toSet());
+        Set<String> expectedFragments = Set.of(fragments);
+        assertEquals(expectedFragments, actualFragments);
+    }
+
+    private static FetchContext fetchContext(SearchExecutionContext context, SearchSourceBuilder search) throws IOException {
+        FetchContext fetchContext = mock(FetchContext.class);
+        when(fetchContext.highlight()).thenReturn(search.highlighter().build(context));
+        when(fetchContext.parsedQuery()).thenReturn(new ParsedQuery(search.query().toQuery(context)));
+        when(fetchContext.getSearchExecutionContext()).thenReturn(context);
+        return fetchContext;
+    }
+}