diff --git a/Lib/fontTools/varLib/varStore.py b/Lib/fontTools/varLib/varStore.py
index b06a1d2e0..251805e3f 100644
--- a/Lib/fontTools/varLib/varStore.py
+++ b/Lib/fontTools/varLib/varStore.py
@@ -422,6 +422,8 @@ class _Encoding(object):
             else:
                 new_encoding = None
             self.best_new_encoding = new_encoding
+            if new_encoding:
+                break
 
 
 class _EncodingDict(dict):
diff --git a/Tests/varLib/varStore_test.py b/Tests/varLib/varStore_test.py
index d8be142b8..b06ae0215 100644
--- a/Tests/varLib/varStore_test.py
+++ b/Tests/varLib/varStore_test.py
@@ -108,6 +108,19 @@ def buildAxis(axisTag):
             2,
             186,
         ),
+        (
+            5,
+            [
+                [10, 11, 0, 0, 20],
+                [10, 300, 0, 0, 20],
+                [10, 301, 0, 0, 20],
+                [10, 302, 0, 0, 20],
+                [10, 303, 0, 0, 20],
+                [10, 304, 0, 0, 20],
+            ],
+            1,
+            180,
+        ),
     ],
 )
 def test_optimize(numRegions, varData, expectedNumVarData, expectedBytes):