diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightPhase.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightPhase.java
index a46bc701efcc7..cbb65edc40722 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightPhase.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightPhase.java
@@ -45,19 +45,12 @@
 public class HighlightPhase extends AbstractComponent implements FetchSubPhase {
 
     private final Highlighters highlighters;
-    private final ImmutableList<String> sortedHighlighters;
+    private static final ImmutableList<String> STANDARD_HIGHLIGHTERS_BY_PRECEDENCE = ImmutableList.of("fvh", "postings", "plain");
 
     @Inject
     public HighlightPhase(Settings settings, Highlighters highlighters) {
         super(settings);
         this.highlighters = highlighters;
-        // TODO: would be nice if each highlighter would have a precedence and we could just sort here by this value
-        // we could then also add custom highlighters to this list and they could be selected automatically depending on precendence
-        ImmutableList.Builder sortedListBuilder = ImmutableList.builder();
-        sortedListBuilder.add("fvh");
-        sortedListBuilder.add("postings");
-        sortedListBuilder.add("plain");
-        sortedHighlighters = sortedListBuilder.build();
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -107,12 +100,13 @@ public void hitExecute(SearchContext context, HitContext hitContext) {
 
                 String highlighterType = field.fieldOptions().highlighterType();
                 if (highlighterType == null) {
-                    for(String highlighterCandidate : sortedHighlighters) {
+                    for(String highlighterCandidate : STANDARD_HIGHLIGHTERS_BY_PRECEDENCE) {
                         if (highlighters.get(highlighterCandidate).canHighlight(fieldMapper)) {
                             highlighterType = highlighterCandidate;
                             break;
                         }
                     }
+                    assert highlighterType != null;
                 }
                 Highlighter highlighter = highlighters.get(highlighterType);
                 if (highlighter == null) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/Highlighter.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/Highlighter.java
index 6911782fc6cb1..26c3dc0bf2132 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/Highlighter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/Highlighter.java
@@ -29,5 +29,5 @@ public interface Highlighter {
 
     HighlightField highlight(HighlighterContext highlighterContext);
 
-    public boolean canHighlight(FieldMapper fieldMapper);
+    boolean canHighlight(FieldMapper fieldMapper);
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/Highlighters.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/Highlighters.java
index d082c331dc758..34e165d976e16 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/Highlighters.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/Highlighters.java
@@ -19,11 +19,9 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.search.highlight;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
-import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSet;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.collect.MapBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Inject;
 
-import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Set;
 
 /**
@@ -47,8 +45,4 @@ public Highlighter get(String type) {
         return parsers.get(type);
     }
 
-    public ImmutableSet<Map.Entry<String, Highlighter>> entrySet() {
-        return parsers.entrySet();
-    }
-
 }