Best drinks to make with a home espresso machine for beginners?

If you're just starting out, I'd stick with the classics like lattes and cappuccinos since they're pretty forgiving and let you practice your milk steaming without worrying too much about precision. Americanos are also great because they're basically just espresso shots with hot water, so you can focus on getting a decent shot without the milk technique adding another layer of difficulty. Are you looking to do latte art eventually, or are you mainly interested in getting good coffee without the fussy presentation stuff? That might help narrow down what you should practice first.

Lattes and cappuccinos are solid starter drinks like mentioned above, but honestly I'd throw in flat whites too since they're basically the same technique but you get to dial in your milk texture a bit more? What kind of machine did you end up getting - like is it a super automatic or manual group head situation, because that actually matters for what's realistic to pull off starting out.

like others said, the classics are solid for practicing, but I'd also say don't sleep on a really good straight shot or americano once you dial in your machine - like, are you more interested in learning milk technique or dialing in the actual espresso first? Because honestly if you get the espresso dialed in, everything else tastes way better. My dogs won't let me focus on pulling shots in the morning but I've found that starting with just nailing the basics on your grind and tamp, then adding milk drinks once that feels consistent, takes some pressure off trying to do everything at once.